"You needn't swear any more," Lin Tai-yue replied, "I'm well aware that
I, your younger cousin, have a place in your heart; but the thing is
that at the sight of your elder cousin, you at once forget all about
your younger cousin."

"This comes again from over-suspicion!" ejaculated Pao; "for I'm not at
all disposed that way."

"Well," resumed Lin Tai-yue, "why did you yesterday appeal to me when
that hussey Pao-ch'ai would not help you by telling a story? Had it been
I, who had been guilty of any such thing, I don't know what you wouldn't
have done again."

But during their _tete-a-tete_, they espied Pao-ch'ai approach from
the opposite direction, so readily they beat a retreat. Pao-ch'ai had
distinctly caught sight of them, but pretending she had not seen them,
she trudged on her way, with lowered head, and repaired into Madame
Wang's apartments. After a short stay, she came to this side to pay
dowager lady Chia a visit. With her she also found Pao-yue.

Pao-ch'ai ever made it a point to hold Pao-yue aloof as her mother had in
days gone by mentioned to Madame Wang and her other relatives that the
gold locket had been the gift of a bonze, that she had to wait until
such time as some suitor with jade turned up before she could be given
in marriage, and other similar confidences. But on discovery the
previous day that Yuean Ch'un's presents to her alone resembled those of
Pao-yue, she began to feel all the more embarrassed. Luckily, however,
Pao-yue was so entangled in Lin Tai-yue's meshes and so absorbed in heart
and mind with fond thoughts of his Lin Tai-yue that he did not pay the