what we ordinarily drink."

"To my taste, it's all right," put in Tai-yue. "But what your palates are
like, I can't make out."

"As you say it's good," suggested Pao-yue, "you're quite at liberty to
take all I have for your use."

"I've got a great deal more of it over there," lady Feng remarked.

"I'll tell a servant-girl to go and fetch it," Tai-yue replied.

"No need," lady Feng went on. "I'll send it over with some one. I also
have a favour to ask of you to-morrow, so I may as well tell the servant
to bring it along at the same time."

When Lin Tai-yue heard these words, she put on a smile. "You just mark
this," she observed. "I've had to-day a little tea from her place, and
she at once begins making a tool of me!"

"Since you've had some of our tea," lady Feng laughed, "how is it that
you have not yet become a wife in our household?"

The whole party burst out laughing aloud. So much so, that they found it
difficult to repress themselves. But Tai-yue's face was suffused with
blushes. She turned her head the other way, and uttered not a word.

"Our sister-in-law Secunda's jibes are first-rate!" Pao-ch'ai chimed in
with a laugh.