Saying this, she cast a look on the needlework she (Hsi Jen) held in her hands. It consisted, in fact, of a belt of white silk, lined with red, and embroidered on the upper part with designs representing mandarin ducks, disporting themselves among some lotus. The lotus flowers were red, the leaves green, the ducks of variegated colours.
"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Pao-ch'ai, "what very beautiful work! For whom is this, that it's worth your while wasting so much labour on it?"
"Does a big strapping fellow like this," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "still wear such things?"
"He would never wear any before," Hsi Jen smiled, "that's why such a nice one was specially worked for him, in order that when he was allowed to see it, he should not be able to do otherwise than use it. With the present hot weather, he goes to sleep anyhow, but as he has been coaxed to wear it, it doesn't matter if even he doesn't cover himself well at night. You say that I bestow much labour upon this, but you haven't yet seen the one he has on!"
"It is a lucky thing," Pao-ch'ai observed, smiling, "that you're gifted with such patience."
"I've done so much of it to-day," remarked Hsi Jen, "that my neck is quite sore from bending over it. My dear Miss," she then urged with a beaming countenance, "do sit here a little. I'll go out for a turn. I'll be back shortly."
With these words, she sallied out of the room.
Pao-ch'ai was intent upon examining the embroidery, so in her absentmindedness, she, with one bend of her body, settled herself on the very same spot, which Hsi Jen had recently occupied. But she found, on second scrutiny, the work so really admirable, that impulsively picking up the needle, she continued it for her. At quite an unforeseen moment—for Lin Tai-yü had met Shih Hsiang-yün and asked her to come along with her and present her congratulations to Hsi Jen—these two girls made their appearance in the court. Finding the whole place plunged in silence, Hsiang-yün turned round and betook herself first into the side-rooms in search of Hsi Jen. Lin Tai-yü, meanwhile, walked up to the window from outside, and peeped in through the gauze frame. At a glance, she espied Pao-yü, clad in a silvery-red coat, lying carelessly on the bed, and Pao-ch'ai, seated by his side, busy at some needlework, with a fly-brush resting by her side.