"I applied on Mr. Secundus," answered Hsi Jen, "the medicine, which Miss
Pao-ch'ai brought over; and he's better than he was. He was so sore at
one time that he couldn't lie comfortably; but the deep sleep, in which
he is plunged now, is a clear sign of his having improved."

"Has he had anything to eat?" further inquired Madame Wang.

"Our dowager mistress sent him a bowl of soup," Hsi Jen continued, "and
of this he has had a few mouthfuls. He shouted and shouted that his
mouth was parched and fancied a decoction of sour plums, but remembering
that sour plums are astringent things, that he had been thrashed only a
short time before, and that not having been allowed to groan, he must,
of course, have been so hard pressed that fiery virus and heated blood
must unavoidably have accumulated in the heart, and that were he to put
anything of the kind within his lips, it might be driven into the
cardiac regions and give rise to some serious illness; and what then
would we do? I therefore reasoned with him for ever so long and at last
succeeded in deterring him from touching any. So simply taking that
syrup of roses, prepared with sugar, I mixed some with water and he had
half a small cup of it. But he drank it with distaste; for, being
surfeited with it, he found it neither scented nor sweet."

"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Madame Wang. "Why didn't you come earlier and tell
me? Some one sent me the other day several bottles of scented water. I
meant at one time to have given him some, but as I feared that it would
be mere waste, I didn't let him have any. But since he is so sick and
tired of that preparation of roses, that he turns up his nose at it,
take those two bottles with you. If you just mix a teaspoonful of it in
a cup of water, it will impart to it a very strong perfume."