on any account keep her in her service. At length, Chin Ch'uan-erh's
mother, Dame Pao, was sent for to take her away. Chin Ch'uan-erh
therefore had to conceal her disgrace, suppress her resentment, and quit
the mansion.

But without any further reference to her, we will now take up our story
with Pao-yue. As soon as he saw Madame Wang awake, his spirits were
crushed. All alone he hastily made his way into the Ta Kuan garden. Here
his attention was attracted by the ruddy sun, shining in the zenith, the
shade of the trees extending far and wide, the song of the cicadas,
filling the ear; and by a perfect stillness, not even broken by the echo
of a human voice. But the instant he got near the trellis, with the
cinnamon roses, the sound of sobs fell on his ear. Doubts and surmises
crept into Pao-yue's mind, so halting at once, he listened with
intentness. Then actually he discerned some one on the off-side of the
trellis. This was the fifth moon, the season when the flowers and
foliage of the cinnamon roses were in full bloom. Furtively peeping
through an aperture in the fence, Pao-yue saw a young girl squatting
under the flowers and digging the ground with a hair-pin she held in her
hand. As she dug, she silently gave way to tears.

"Can it be possible," mused Pao-yue, "that this girl too is stupid? Can
she also be following P'in Erh's example and come to inter flowers? Why
if she's likewise really burying flowers," he afterwards went on to
smilingly reflect, "this can aptly be termed: 'Tung Shih tries to
imitate a frown.' But not only is what she does not original, but it is
despicable to boot. You needn't," he meant to shout out to the girl, at
the conclusion of this train of thought, "try and copy Miss Lin's
example." But before the words had issued from his mouth, he luckily
scrutinised her a second time, and found that the girl's features were