make it up, I found them, though one did not expect it, in each other's
company, confessing their faults, and laughing and chatting. Just like a
yellow eagle clutching the feet of a kite were those two hanging on to
each other. So where was the necessity for any one to go?"

These words evoked laughter from every one in the room. Pao-ch'ai,
however, was present at the time so Lin Tai-yue did not retort, but went
and ensconced herself in a seat near her grandmother.

When Pao-yue noticed that no one had anything to say, he smilingly
addressed himself to Pao-ch'ai. "On cousin Hsueeh P'an's birth-day," he
remarked, "I happened again to be unwell, so not only did I not send him
any presents, but I failed to go and knock my head before him. Yet
cousin knows nothing about my having been ill, and it will seem to him
that I had no wish to go, and that I brought forward excuses so as to
avoid paying him a visit. If to-morrow you find any leisure, cousin, do
therefore explain matters for me to him."

"This is too much punctiliousness!" smiled Pao-ch'ai. "Even had you
insisted upon going, we wouldn't have been so arrogant as to let you put
yourself to the trouble, and how much less when you were not feeling
well? You two are cousins and are always to be found together the whole
day; if you encourage such ideas, some estrangement will, after all,
arise between you."

"Cousin," continued Pao-yue smilingly, "you know what to say; and so long
as you're lenient with me all will be all right. But how is it," he went
on to ask, "that you haven't gone over to see the theatricals?"

"I couldn't stand the heat" rejoined Pao-ch'ai. "I looked on while two