own counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been Miss
Lin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and what
tears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had to
tell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. But
after a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy as
I imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, she
was by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth,
long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quite
distant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and as
Miss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose to
heed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him."

"Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "Had she ever
talked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled
towards her."

"What you say is all trash!" Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen remarked with one
voice, while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled.

Lin Tai-yue, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yuen
was staying in the mansion, Pao-yue too was certain to hasten to come and
tell her all about the unicorn he had got, so she thought to herself:
"In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late by
Pao-yue, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part,
brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but
ingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, or
phoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegant
sashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivial
objects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes they
entertained throughout their lives." When she recently discovered, by