"You can't so on for ever like this," continued Chia Hui; "you're
besides loth to eat and loth to drink, and what will you be like in the
long run?"

"What's there to fear?" observed Hsiao Hung; "won't it anyhow be better
to die a little earlier? It would be a riddance!"

"Why do you deliberately come out with all this talk?" Chia Hui
demurred.

"How could you ever know anything of the secrets of my heart?" Hsiao
Hung inquired.

Chia Hui nodded her head and gave way to reflection. "I don't think it
strange on your part," she said after a time; "for it is really
difficult to abide in this place! Yesterday, for instance, our dowager
lady remarked that the servants in attendance had had, during all the
days that Pao-yue was ill, a good deal to put up with, and that now that
he has recovered, incense should be burnt everywhere, and the vows
fulfilled; and she expressed a wish that those in his service should,
one and all, be rewarded according to their grade. I and several others
can be safely looked upon as young in years, and unworthy to presume so
high; so I don't feel in any way aggrieved; but how is it that one like
you couldn't be included in the number? My heart is much annoyed at it!
Had there been any fear that Hsi Jen would have got ten times more, I
could not even then have felt sore against her, for she really deserves
it! I'll just tell you an honest truth; who else is there like her? Not
to speak of the diligence and carefulness she has displayed all along,
even had she not been so diligent and careful, she couldn't have been
set aside! But what is provoking is that that lot, like Ch'ing Wen and