Tai-yue, on her part, gave way to fear lest anything should happen to
him, (and she tried to re-assure him). "Just go and look at the plays,"
she therefore replied, "what's the use of boxing yourself up at home?"

Pao-yue was, however, not in a very happy frame of mind on account of the
reference to his marriage made by Chang, the Taoist, the day before, so
when he heard Lin Tai-yue's utterances: "If others don't understand me;"
he mused, "it's anyhow excusable; but has she too begun to make fun of
me?" His heart smarted in consequence under the sting of a mortification
a hundred times keener than he had experienced up to that occasion. Had
he been with any one else, it would have been utterly impossible for her
to have brought into play feelings of such resentment, but as it was no
other than Tai-yue who spoke the words, the impression produced upon him
was indeed different from that left in days gone by, when others
employed similar language. Unable to curb his feelings, he
instantaneously lowered his face. "My friendship with you has been of no
avail" he rejoined. "But, never mind, patience!"

This insinuation induced Lin Tai-yue to smile a couple of sarcastic
smiles. "Yes, your friendship with me has been of no avail," she
repeated; "for how can I compare with those whose manifold qualities
make them fit matches for you?"

As soon as this sneer fell on Pao-yue's ear he drew near to her. "Are you
by telling me this," he asked straight to her face, "deliberately bent
upon invoking imprecations upon me that I should be annihilated by
heaven and extinguished by earth?"

Lin Tai-yue could not for a time fathom the import of his remarks. "It
was," Pao-yue then resumed, "on account of this very conversation that I