"What do the servant-boys know?" T'an Ch'un replied. "Those you chose
for me were plain yet not commonplace. Neither were they of coarse make.
So were you to procure me as many as you can get of them, I'll work you
a pair of slippers like those I gave you last time, and spend twice as
much trouble over them as I did over that pair you have. Now, what do
you say to this bargain?"

"Your reference to this," smiled Pao-yue, "reminds me of an old incident.
One day I had them on, and by a strange coincidence, I met father, whose
fancy they did not take, and he inquired who had worked them. But how
could I muster up courage to allude to the three words: my sister
Tertia, so I answered that my maternal aunt had given them to me on the
recent occasion of my birthday. When father heard that they had been
given to me by my aunt, he could not very well say anything. But after a
while, 'why uselessly waste,' he observed, 'human labour, and throw away
silks to make things of this sort!' On my return, I told Hsi Jen about
it. 'Never mind,' said Hsi Jen; but Mrs. Chao got angry. 'Her own
brother,' she murmured indignantly, 'wears slipshod shoes and socks in
holes, and there's no one to look after him, and does she go and work
all these things!'"

T'an Ch'un, hearing this, immediately lowered her face. "Now tell me,
aren't these words utter rot!" she shouted. "What am I that I have to
make shoes? And is it likely that Huan Erh hasn't his own share of
things! Clothes are clothes, and shoes and socks are shoes and socks;
and how is it that any grudges arise in the room of a mere servant-girl
and old matron? For whose benefit does she come out with all these
things! I simply work a pair or part of a pair when I am at leisure,
with time on my hands. And I can give them to any brother, elder or
younger, I fancy; and who has a right to interfere with me? This is just