The Warning Voice Read online

  ‘Now do your job properly. We’ll be back to relieve you as soon as we’ve had our lunch. No sneaking off to sit down while we’re away!’

  The departure of Scribe and the other two was a signal for the women outside to begin going in, one by one, to report on their various business. They did this sedately enough, with none of the careless insolence they had been showing previously. Tan-chun’s customary good nature gradually reasserted itself and presently she turned to Patience and addressed her in a normal tone of voice:

  ‘There’s an important matter that I have been wanting to consult your mistress about. I’m glad I’ve remembered it now. Come back again as soon as you have finished your lunch, while Miss Bao is still here, and the four of us can discuss it together; then, when we’ve worked out all the details, we can ask your mistress whether to go forward with it or not.’

  ‘Yes, miss,’ said Patience, and promptly left.

  When she got back, Xi-feng asked her why she had been so long and received a full account of what had happened which greatly entertained her.

  ‘Good! Good!’ she said. ‘Good for Tan-chun! I always said she’d make an excellent little manager. Oh, what a pity she wasn’t born in the right bed!’

  ‘Now you’re talking stupid, madam,’ said Patience. ‘Although she’s not Her Ladyship’s child by birth, surely no one is going to think any the worse of her because of that? Won’t she always be treated exactly the same as the rest?’

  Xi-feng sighed:

  ‘I’m afraid it’s not quite as simple as you think. I know being a wife’s or a concubine’s child is not supposed to make any difference, and in a boy’s case perhaps it doesn’t; but I’m afraid with girls, when the time comes to start finding husbands for them, it often does. Nowadays you get a very shallow class of person who will ask about that before anything else and often, if they hear that the girl is a concubine’s child, will have nothing further to do with her. It’s silly, really, because if they did but know it, even the maids in a household like ours are better than the wife’s daughters in many another household, let alone the daughters of concubines. In the case of girls like Tan-chun and Ying-chun it’s hard to say. They might be unlucky and make a bad match through being discriminated against, or then again they might be lucky: someone might come along who didn’t care about these distinctions and they might make a perfectly good marriage.’

  Xi-feng paused for a moment and smiled at Patience confidingly:

  ‘Because of all the economies I’ve introduced during these last few years there’s hardly anyone in this household who doesn’t secretly hate me. But it’s like riding a tiger: I daren’t relax my grip for a single moment for fear of being eaten. In any case, our expenditure is still far above our income. The trouble is, everything in this household from the largest down to the smallest item has to be done on a scale and according to rules that were laid down by our ancestors; but unfortunately the income from our property is not what it was in their days. If we do economize, the family looks ridiculous, Their Ladyships feel uncomfortable, and the servants complain of our harshness; yet if we don’t economize, in a very few years’ time we shall be bankrupt.’

  ‘I know,’ said Patience. ‘And there are three or four young ladies and two or three young masters to provide for, and Her Old Ladyship: all these big expenses are yet to come.’

  ‘Ah, I’ve allowed for them,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Those expenses I think we can just about manage. Bao-yu’s bride-price and Miss Lin’s dowry won’t involve us in any expense because Her Old Ladyship will pay them out of her private savings and Miss Ying will be taken care of by Sir She. Of the girls, that only leaves Miss Tan and Miss Xi. They’re not going to cost more than seven or eight thousand each at the outside. Then there’s Huan: they’re not going to spend all that much on him: say three thousand. Even if we can’t raise all of that, we can probably get by with a little judicious pruning. As for Her Old Ladyship: the main things have been paid for already; there will only be various miscellaneous expenses. Four or five thousand will probably be ample. No, as long as we can economize a bit, we shall be able to deal with those expenses as they come along. What really worries me is the possibility of one or two large items of expenditure turning up which we hadn’t been expecting. Then I am afraid we really shall be done for!

  ‘But let’s not worry about these far-off things just now. You must hurry up and have your lunch so that you can get back and find out what it is they want to talk about. I’m delighted that things should be turning out in this way. It’s what I’ve always wanted, someone to take a bit of the weight off my shoulders. There’s Bao-yu of course; but he isn’t really one of us, so even if I were to win him over, he wouldn’t be very much use. Mrs Zhu is such a Holy Buddha, she’s no good. Miss Ying’s even worse – and anyway she doesn’t properly belong to this household. Miss Xi is still childish. Lan is little more than a baby. Huan is like a singed cat in the cold, only looking for a warm stove or a corner of a kang to curl up on – How the same mother could produce two children such poles apart as him and Tan-chun I never shall understand! – Miss Lin and Miss Bao are both very capable girls, but unfortunately they’re not of our surname and can’t very well be expected to involve themselves in running our affairs. And in any case, one of them’s like a beautiful picture-lantern: you feel that a puff of wind would blow her out; and the other is so determined not to open her mouth about what doesn’t concern her that a shake or a nod or an “I don’t know” is about all you can ever get out of her and you feel a bit awkward about asking her to do anything. And that only leaves Miss Tan. She’s got a good mind; she’s good at expressing herself; she belongs to the right lineage; Her Ladyship likes her; she’s a bit unsure of herself perhaps, but that’s all the doing of that wretched Zhao woman; in other respects she’s very much like Bao-yu. She’s certainly not in the least like Huan. He really is the most objectionable child. If I had my way he’d have been sent packing long ago. No, if she’s got the determination to do this job, let’s go along with her, I say. Let’s make an ally of her, so that I don’t have to go on feeling so isolated. From a high-minded, honourable point of view, having her to help us will save us a good deal of anxiety, and in the long run Her Ladyship will benefit. But there is also a not so high-minded, rather more selfish way of looking at it. I’ve been too ruthless, I know I have. I ought to step back now and take stock of things. I can’t keep the pressure up any longer. People hate me so much already, there are daggers in their smiles. You and I have only two pairs of eyes between us. If I carry on as I have been doing, sooner or later they are bound to catch us off our guard and I shall be destroyed. So you see, her stepping forward and taking command just when things are at their liveliest means that the heat will be turned off me for the time being and people’s resentment against me will have a chance to cool down.

  ‘There’s something else I want to say to you. I know you are a very intelligent person, but I am afraid you may find it rather hard to transfer your allegiance, so I want to impress this on you now. Although Miss Tan may be only a girl, there are very few things that she doesn’t know about. You mustn’t be taken in by her quiet manner. In fact, being able to read and write, she’s if anything better equipped to manage things than I am. Now they always say that anyone who wants to break a gang up should begin by arresting the leader, and her immediate concern must be to make an example of someone as a means of establishing her authority. That being so, you can be quite sure that I shall be the person she’ll pick on first to make an example of. If she starts criticizing anything I have said or done, don’t try to defend it; just be very polite and say that the criticism is justified. Don’t, whatever you do, stand up to her out of a mistaken sense of loyalty to me: that’s the last thing I want you to do.’

  Before she could go on, Patience laughingly interrupted her:

  ‘Why are you so ready to assume that other people are stupid? I’ve been taking that line with her already; I don’t need you to
tell me!’

  ‘I was afraid you might have no time for anyone but me,’ said Xi-feng. ‘That was my only reason for warning you. If you have been taking that line with her already, so much the better. Evidently you are cleverer than I am. By the way, aren’t you perhaps getting a little carried away – this “you”, “you”, “you” all of a sudden? What’s wrong with “madam”?’

  ‘I’ll say “you” if I want to,’ said Patience. ‘If you don’t like it, there’s always my face to slap. It won’t be the first time it’s enjoyed that privilege!’

  ‘Little beast!’ said Xi-feng. ‘How many times do you intend to go on dragging that up? Fancy provoking me with a thing like that when you know how ill I am! Come on! There aren’t any visitors about. Come over and sit here with me. We’d better get on with our lunch.’

  Felicity and three or four junior maids came in at this point carrying a short-legged table between them which they set down on the kang. Xi-feng’s lunch consisted of no more than some bird’s nest soup and a couple of small, light dishes suitable for an invalid palate. Unable to eat more, she had cancelled the portion that under normal catering arrangements would have been her due. Felicity put the four dishes to which Patience was entitled on Xi-feng’s table and filled her a bowlful of rice. Patience then half sat, half stood with one foot curled underneath her on the edge of the kang and the other one resting on the floor, and in that position kept Xi-feng company while she ate her lunch. When they had both finished eating, she helped Xi-feng to wash and rinse out her mouth, then, after a few admonitory words to Felicity, went back to rejoin Tan-chun and the others in the office.

  Outside the office building the forecourt was quiet and deserted. The stewardesses who had formerly been waiting there had now all gone off about their business.

  What happened when she went inside will be related in the following chapter.

  CHAPTER 56

  Resourceful Tan-chun abolishes abuses in the interests of economy And sapient Baochai shows bow small concessions can be made without loss of dignity

  Having kept Xi-feng company while she ate her lunch and waited on her while she rinsed her mouth out and washed, Patience made her way back to the ‘jobs room’. The courtyard outside it was quiet now, deserted except for the silent row of maids and womenservants waiting outside the windows until their mistresses inside the room should require them. The latter were already in the midst of a discussion. They were talking about Lai Da’s garden, which they had visited in Grandmother Jia’s company some months previously on the occasion of the party which had had such unfortunate consequences for Xue Pan. Tan-chun broke off as Patience entered and indicated a low stool for her to sit on.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about those two taels we get every month for hair-oil and cosmetics,’ she told Patience. ‘We already get a monthly allowance of two taels each and our maids get allowances too. It looks to me as if this is another case of duplication, like the eight taels paid to the school every year which we were dealing with earlier. I know it’s not a very important matter, and the sum involved is not very great, but it’s obvious at a glance that this is a bad arrangement, and I can’t understand why your mistress hasn’t noticed it.’

  ‘There is a reason,’ said Patience. ‘Obviously you young ladies need a regular fixed supply of these things, and as there wouldn’t be much sense in our constantly running out with a few coppers to make individual purchases, the cosmetic allowances for the various departments are drawn by our buyers and used to make bulk purchases with. The stewardesses collect monthly supplies from the buyers and distribute them to the different apartments, and we maids in the different apartments look after them for use by you as and when you need them. The two-tael monthly allowance you get is quite separate from the cosmetics money. It isn’t meant to be spent on cosmetics; it’s simply to keep you in money, so that if the need should ever arise to spend on something, you shouldn’t have the inconvenience of finding yourselves short and perhaps running round for some only to find that Her Ladyship or whoever is in charge at the time is out or too busy to see you. I have to admit though that about half of us do in fact seem to go outside these arrangements and buy cosmetics with our spending money; but whether it’s because the official buyers simply pocket the money and don’t deliver the goods, or because the stuff they supply us with is so inferior, I simply don’t know.’

  Tan-chun and Li Wan exchanged knowing smiles.

  ‘You’ve noticed, too, then,’ said Tan-chun. ‘I don’t think they actually embezzle the money, but sometimes the supply is very much delayed. If you try to hurry them they produce something so awful that it is quite unusable, and in the end you are forced to buy your own. There’s only one way of doing that, too. You have to give a couple of taels to a nannie and ask her to get one of her sons or nephews to buy it for you. It’s no good trying to do it through the regular staff. If you do, you only get the same awful, unusable stuff as before, I don’t know why.’

  ‘It’s because if they bought you stuff of better quality, they’d be in trouble with the regular buyers,’ said Patience. ‘The regular buyers would complain that they were trying to do them out of a job. They’d rather offend you than risk offending the buyers. Of course, if you get the stuff through your nannies, there’s nothing the buyers can do about it.’

  ‘Well, I am very uneasy about the whole arrangement,’ said Tan-chun. ‘Here we are paying the same money twice over and half the stuff that is paid for has to be wasted. It would be much better if this monthly payment to the buyers were abolished altogether. That’s one thing. Another thing is this. Last year when we went to Lai Da’s place, you went too. What did you think of that little garden of theirs? How do you think it compares with ours?’

  ‘It’s not half as big,’ said Patience, ‘and it has far, far fewer trees and flowers and things in it.’

  ‘I got talking to one of the daughters while we were there,’ said Tan-chun. ‘That garden of theirs is let out annually on contract. She told me that quite apart from supplying them through the year with flowers for their hair and with all the bamboo-shoots, vegetables and fish that they eat, it brings them in an annual income of two hundred taels of silver. Ever since that day I have realized that even a broken lotus-leaf or a withered grass-root is worth something.’

  Bao-chai laughed.

  ‘There speaks the voice of gilded youth. How typical! But even though, O delicately-nurtured one, you have no immediate experience of such matters, you can, after all, read and write. Surely you must at some time or other have read Zhuxius’s essay “On Not Throwing Away”?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Tan-chun, ‘but in that essay isn’t he merely urging the people, in a fairly general sort of way, to exert themselves? And isn’t it all rather empty and rhetorical? Surely he didn’t mean every word of it to be taken literally?’

  ‘Zhuxius empty and rhetorical?’ said Bao-chai. ‘He meant every word of it. If, after only a few days of household management, the greed for gain has already so clouded your judgement that the teachings of Zhuxius seem empty and rhetorical, I fancy that if you were to venture outside into the corrupting atmosphere of the market-place, you would soon be finding even Confucius himself too abstract for you!’

  ‘Since you are so learned,’ said Tan-chun, ‘I’m surprised that you should appear to be unfamiliar with the views of Fixius. Fixius once said, “Whosoever sets his foot in the market-place or takes his seat at the counting-board must forget about Yao and Shun and turn his back on the teachings of Confucius and Mencius…”’

  ‘How does it go on?’ said Bao-chai.

  ‘I must claim the quoter’s privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose,’ said Tan-chun. ‘If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!’

  ‘Everything in the world has some use or other,’ said Bao-chai, ‘and if it has a use, it must have a monetary value. Surely to an intelligent person like you so obvious a truism can hardly have come as a
revelation?’

  ‘You call people here to discuss important business,’ said Li Wan, ‘but all we have had so far is talk about books!’

  ‘But talk about books is important business,’ said Bao-chai. ‘Without it we should be no better than vulgar tradesmen!’

  The three of them continued chaffing a little longer before Tan-chun returned to her theme:

  ‘Let’s say for the sake of argument that our garden is only twice as big as theirs. Doubling the income they get from theirs would mean a clear profit of four hundred taels per annum. Now of course, a family like ours couldn’t possibly put its garden under contract and turn it into a business in the way that they do: it would look too mercenary. On the other hand, when you know how valuable everything is, it seems a terrible waste of natural resources not to have a few people whose special job is to look after it and just let everyone trample on it and despoil it as they please. I think we ought to pick out a few experienced trustworthy old women from among the ones who work in the Garden – women who know something about gardening already – and put the upkeep of the Garden into their hands. We needn’t ask them to pay us rent; all we need ask them for is an annual share of the produce. There would be four advantages in this arrangement. In the first place, if we have people whose sole occupation is to look after trees and flowers and so on, the condition of the garden will improve gradually year after year and there will be no more of those long periods of neglect followed by bursts of feverish activity when things have been allowed to get out of hand. Secondly there won’t be the spoiling and wastage we get at present. Thirdly the women themselves will gain a little extra to add to their incomes which will compensate them for the hard work they put in throughout the year. And fourthly, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t use the money we should otherwise have, spent on nurserymen, rockery specialists, horticultural cleaners and so on for other purposes.’