"We thought you were fast asleep, Miss," smiled the two or three matrons
as soon as they perceived Tai-yue get up. This greeting over, they called
Tzu Chuean. "Your young mistress," they said, "has awoke; come in and
wait on her!"

While calling her, they quitted the room in a body. Tai-yue remained
seated on the bed. Raising her arms, she adjusted her hair, and
smilingly she observed to Pao-yue, "When people are asleep, what do you
walk in for?"

At the sight of her half-closed starlike eyes and of her fragrant
cheeks, suffused with a crimson blush, Pao-yue's feelings were of a
sudden awakened; so, bending his body, he took a seat on a chair, and
asked with a smile: "What were you saying a short while back?"

"I wasn't saying anything," Tai-yue replied.

"What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat!" laughed Pao-yue. "I
heard all."

But in the middle of their colloquy, they saw Tzu Chuean enter. Pao-yue
then put on a smiling face. "Tzu Chuean!" he cried, "pour me a cup of
your good tea!"

"Where's the good tea to be had?" Tzu Chuean answered. "If you want good
tea, you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes."

"Don't heed him!" interposed Tai-yue. "Just go first and draw me some
water."