Upon hearing this explanation, lady Feng raised her eyebrows into a
frown, and turning her head round: "It's most disgusting!" she remarked,
"Those bearing the name Yue would seem to be very cheap; for your name is
Yue, and so is also mine Yue. Sister-in-law," she then observed; "I never
let you know anything about it, but I mentioned to her mother that Lai
Ta's wife has at present her hands quite full, and that she hasn't
either any notion as to who is who in this mansion. 'You had better,' (I
said), 'carefully select a couple of girls for my service.' She assented
unreservedly, but she put it off and never chose any. On the contrary,
she sent this girl to some other place. But is it likely that she
wouldn't have been well off with me?"

"Here you are again full of suspicion!" Li Wan laughed. "She came in
here long before you ever breathed a word to her! So how could you bear
a grudge against her mother?"

"Well, in that case," added lady Feng, "I'll speak to Pao-yue to-morrow,
and induce him to find another one, and to allow this girl to come along
with me. I wonder, however, whether she herself is willing or not?"

"Whether willing or not," interposed Hsiao Hung smiling, "such as we
couldn't really presume to raise our voices and object. We should feel
it our privilege to serve such a one as your ladyship, and learn a
little how to discriminate when people raise or drop their eyebrows and
eyes (with pleasure or displeasure), and reap as well some experience in
such matters as go out or come in, whether high or low, great and
small."

But during her reply, she perceived Madame Wang's waiting-maid come and