they are the most excellent among that whole crowd of medicines; and
were I to begin to give you a list of them, why, they'd take you all
quite aback. The year before last, I at length let Hsueeh P'an have this
recipe, after he had made ever so many entreaties during one or two
years. When, however, he got the prescription, he had to search for
another two or three years and to spend over and above a thousand taels
before he succeeded in having it prepared. If you don't believe me,
mother, you are at liberty to ask cousin Pao-ch'ai about it."

At the mention of her name, Pao-ch'ai laughingly waved her hand. "I know
nothing about it," she observed. "Nor have I heard anything about it, so
don't tell your mother to ask me any questions."

"Really," said Madame Wang smiling, "Pao-ch'ai is a good girl; she does
not tell lies."

Pao-yue was standing in the centre of the room. Upon hearing these words,
he turned round sharply and clapped his hands. "What I stated just now,"
he explained, "was the truth; yet you maintain that it was all lies."

As he defended himself, he casually looked round, and caught sight of
Lin Tai-yue at the back of Pao-ch'ai laughing with tight-set lips, and
applying her fingers to her face to put him to shame.

But Lady Feng, who had been in the inner rooms overseeing the servants
laying the table, came out at once, as soon as she overheard the
conversation. "Brother Pao tells no lies," she smilingly chimed in,
"this is really a fact. Some time ago cousin Hsueeh P'an came over in
person and asked me for pearls, and when I inquired of him what he
wanted them for, he explained that they were intended to compound some