While replying, he made an attempt to take his leave. "Come back,"
shouted lady Feng, "I've got something more to tell you."

"Our venerable senior has sent for me," Pao-yue rejoined; "if you have
anything to tell me you must wait till my return."

After this explanation, he there and then came over to his grandmother
Chia's on this side, where he found that they had already got through
their meal.

"Have you had anything nice to eat with your mother?" old lady Chia
asked.

"There was really nothing nice," Pao-yue smiled. "Yet I managed to have a
bowl of rice more than usual."

"Where's cousin Lin?" he then inquired.

"She's in the inner rooms," answered his grandmother.

Pao-yue stepped in. He caught sight of a waiting-maid, standing below,
blowing into an iron, and two servant-girls seated on the stove-couch
making a chalk line. Tai-yue with stooping head was cutting out something
or other with a pair of scissors she held in her hand.

Pao-yue advanced further in. "O! what's this that you are up to!" he
smiled. "You have just had your rice and do you bob your head down in
this way! Why, in a short while you'll be having a headache again!"