rs who had entangled themselves in a painful family secret.

The second Yu felt, even more than the others, that this situation was untenable, and she pressed her clandestine husband to try to arrange for an early marriage, which would at last rid the house of the tormentor and restore peace to the love nest in the Lane of the Flowering Branch.

"I have already discussed the matter with Cousin Chen," replied Chia Lien, "but he finds it too difficult to part with your sister. I have put it to him that she is a succulent but indigestible piece of wild mutton for him; a beautiful but at the same time thorny rose, and that it is best he

should give her up; but he could not bring himself to do that. So what's to be done?"

"We will speak seriously to her tomorrow," suggested the second Yu. "Just you leave it to me!

Even if she rants and rages, I will make her see reason in the end."

The next day they gave the third Yu and her mother a formal invitation to midday dinner.

"I can very well guess why you have invited me," said the shrewish younger sister today by chance in a softer mood to the elder, with tears in her eyes, thereby forestalling her. "I expect you will want to reason with me again, but you need not beat about the bush; I'm not a thickhead. I can see through you and I know what you are aiming at. You and Mother are comfortably settled here and well looked after, and now you want to have your peace and to pack me off somewhere else. From your point of view that is certainly right and reasonable, but for me marriage is a solemn decision. I cannot bind myself for life to the first man who turns up. Very well, find me the right man whom I can love, and I will follow him

as my husband. But spare me proposals such as Cousin Chen's. Whatever his money and position, I do not love him and I will not have him."

"Who, then, is the right man for you? Speak up and teH us!" urged Chia Lien. "Then you may leave all the rest to us. Neither you nor your mother will have any expense or trouble!"

"Ask my sister. She knows exactly whom I mean," declared the third Yu briefly and resolutely.

"Oh, I can already guess who it is, and I must admit that you have good taste," cried Chia Lien, laughing outright.

"Who is it? Who is it?" asked the second Yu, eagerly.

"Why, who else can have got within range of her eyes except Cousin Pao-yü,?"

The third Yu smiled contemptuously.

"Pah! As if you few cousins were the only men available for us sisters, even if there were a dozen of us! How absurd! Fortunately, there's more choice than that in the world for us."

"Well, whom else would you consider?" she was asked eagerly from three sides at once.

"Let my sister think hard and throw her mind back five years!" retorted the third Yu.

The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Chia Lien's trusted servant, Little Hsing, who had come to call him to his father, Prince Shieh, on an urgent matter. So Chia Lien had to break off the important consultation for the time being and set out on horseback.

He took as escort his servant Little Lung, and left Little Hsing at the disposal of his second wife until his return.

The second Yu availed herself of the opportunity to question Little Hsing about life in the western palace. How old Madame Hsi-feng was; whether she was really as bad as she was made out to be; the age and character of the Ancestress and the various young girls in the Park of Delightful Vision; these and many other things she wanted to know exactly. Grinning

obsequiously as he sat eating, and drinking tea, Little Hsing gave her the information she desired. The staff had more respect for Hsi-feng than for Chia Lien; all feared her sharp tongue and the poison of her crooked designs; her husband, on the contrary, was a good-natured fellow; and as for P'ing Erh, Hsi-feng's personal maid, she never dared to oppose her

stern mistress openly, but behind her back she put right many wrongs and was generally beloved by the whole staff as a kindhearted protectress. He told, moreover, how Hsi-feng contrived to hoodwink the old Tai tai continually and keep her in good humor by always ascribing everything favorable to herself and blaming everything unfavorable on others; denying her own mistakes and harrying others for theirs and fanning the flames against them; and how greedy she was for money, which she would like to heap up mountains high if she could, and that apart from the old Tai tai there was no one in the whole house now who could stand her. With sly calculation Little Hsing came out with these and similar things, which he know would sound sweet in the ears of the future mistress.

"My word, that's a nice way to let your tongue run about your mistress behind her back! What will you not say about me one day, for I am quite a lot worse than she is?" said the second Yu, laughing.

Little Hsing promptly fell on his knees before her.

"May I be struck by lightning if I ever carry on against you!" he protested. "With you, Nai nai, it is quite different, of course. We servants would have counted ourselves lucky if our : naster had made a lady like you his first lady from the very beginning. We would not have had to put up with so many blows and scoldings the whole time, and to live in fear and trembling as we do. Whether we talk openly or behind your back, we cannot praise and bless your gentleness and kindness of heart highly enough. We compete eagerly for the honor of being brought out here with our master, for then we have the opportunity of waiting upon you ! " he flattered her.

"Oh, you crafty knave! That's enough now, stand up! You need not be afraid. I was only joking just now. I am not so bad at all. But tell me, how do you think it would be if I simply went over one day and made the acquaintance of your severe mistress?"

Little Hsing held up his hands in horror.

"I warn you a thousand, ten thousand times! Do not do that! Take my advice, Nai nai, and beware of allowing her to set eyes on you! I warn you, she's a two-faced woman. She bewitches you with smiles and sweet words, and at the same time she's planning vile things and throwing her snares around your feet to trip you up. She carries sharp daggers and knives around with her in secret. Not even your sister, for all her able tongue, would be a

match for her, let alone such a noble, fine, gentle-natured lady as you! No, she is no company for you!"

"I did not have any intimate acquaintance in mind; I meant merely a formal courtesy visit."

"Whether formal or friendly, I warn you, Nai nai! Do not think that I've been drinking and don't know what I'm saying! But believe me, she has only to see you, with your charms, which are greater than hers, and your friendly ways, which are more winning than hers, and she will see you as her deadly enemy. If other people have just an ordinary jugful of the vinegar of jealousy in them, she has a whole barrelful. My master has only to look once too often at one of her waiting maids, and

that is enough excuse for her to berate and punish the poor creature most cruelly in his presence."

"My word, she seems to be a real devil. Now tell me something about the Widow Chu and the young girls in the Park of Delightful Vision."

"Well, here goes! The Widow Chu is a nice, good soul, who concerns herself with nothing else but superintending the young ladies' studies and teaching them needlework. As for our four young daughters of the family, the eldest, Yuan Ch’un, the Imperial wife, is goodness and virtue itself. The second one, Miss Ying Ch'un is a bit stupid and for this reason goes by the

nickname of 'Blockhead.'" The third, Miss T'an Ch'un has the nickname 'Rose' on account of her rosy cheeks and also because, though she's very charming, she can also be terribly prickly. It's a pity that she is not the child of the good Tai tai Cheng but of the wicked secondary wife Chou. That's a real case of a phoenix chick being laid by mistake in a raven's

nest. The fourth of the girls, Miss Hsi Ch'un a younger blood sister of Prince Chen, is a very well-behaved, good child. Besides these, we have two foster daughters in the house, two very unusual young girls. The one, Miss Tai-yü, is the child of the late Aunt Ling, the other, Miss Pao-ch'ai, is the child of our Aunt Hsueh. They are both equally beautiful and highly educated.

When we servants catch sight of one of them in the distance, we hold our breath."

"Oh, indeed? And why is that?"

"For fear that the one, the delicate Miss Tai-yü, might be blown over if we breathed too hard,

and that the other, the delicious Miss Pao-ch'ai, might melt away if we breathed too hotly."

Everyone in the room had to burst out laughing at this droll explanation.

But our esteemed readers will want to know at last whom the third Yu really did want for a husband. Just be patient. You will learn this in the next chapter.