invite lady Feng to go over. Lady Feng bade good-bye at once to Li
Kung-ts'ai and took her departure.

Hsiao Hung then returned into the I Hung court, where we will leave her
and devote our attention for the present to Lin Tai-yue.

As she had had but little sleep in the night, she got up the next day at
a late hour. When she heard that all her cousins were collected in the
park, giving a farewell entertainment for the god of flowers, she
hastened, for fear people should laugh at her for being lazy, to comb
her hair, perform her ablutions, and go out and join them. As soon as
she reached the interior of the court, she caught sight of Pao-yue,
entering the door, who speedily greeted her with a smile. "My dear
cousin," he said, "did you lodge a complaint against me yesterday? I've
been on pins and needles the whole night long."

Tai-yue forthwith turned her head away. "Put the room in order," she
shouted to Tzu Chuean, "and lower one of the gauze window-frames. And
when you've seen the swallows come back, drop the curtain; keep it down
then by placing the lion on it, and after you have burnt the incense,
mind you cover the censer."

So saying she stepped outside.

Pao-yue perceiving her manner, concluded again that it must be on account
of the incident of the previous noon, but how could he have had any idea
about what had happened in the evening? He kept on still bowing and
curtseying; but Lin Tai-yue did not even so much as look at him straight
in the face, but egressing alone out of the door of the court, she
proceeded there and then in search of the other girls.