The Warning Voice (17 page)

She grabbed hold of the little half-made willow basket and waved it in Swallow's face.

‘And what's this supposed to be? What's the bloody meaning of this?'

‘
I
made that,' said Oriole. ‘Don't curse the mulberry tree when you mean the locust. If it's me you're angry with, why not say so and leave her out of it?'

Swallow's mother was intensely jealous of these senior maids like Oriole and Aroma and Skybright, for she knew that their status and authority were greatly superior to her own. She feared them and deferred to them, but doing so cost her a good deal of angry resentment which she vented on the junior maids. On this occasion her anger was further exacerbated by the presence of her sister's enemy, Nénuphar.

Swallow was now making her way tearfully towards Green Delights. Her mother was afraid that if they asked her there why she was crying and she told them, there would be further insults to put up with from Skybright, so she hurried after her to try and stop her.

‘You come back!' she shouted. ‘You'll go when I say you can.'

But Swallow refused to stop, and her mother, greatly incensed, rushed forward, intending to lay hands on her. Swallow happened to turn and see her coming, however, and got away by running even faster. Her mother, continuing the pursuit, slipped on the moss and fell over, to the great delight of Oriole and the other two.

Oriole was by now so disgusted with the whole affair that she threw everything – basket, twigs and flowers – into the water and went off home, leaving the old aunt blessing herself in pious horror at the waste.

‘Wicked creature!' she called out after her. ‘You ought to be struck by lightning, throwing away good flowers like that!'

She set about picking some herself then, to deliver to the various apartments.

As for Swallow, she went on running until she came to Green Delights. There, just inside the courtyard, she ran full tilt into Aroma, who was just at that moment setting
out to pay a call on Dai-yu. Swallow clung to her imploringly.

‘Save me, miss! My mother's going to beat me again.'

At the sight of the mother, arriving now in hot pursuit, Aroma could no longer contain her annoyance.

‘That's twice in three days: first your foster-daughter and now your own daughter. Is it to show off the size of your family that you do this, or do you really not know any better?'

Being a relative newcomer to the Garden, Swallow's mother had as yet formed no very clear impression of Aroma beyond that she spoke very little and was probably a fairly harmless sort of person.

‘I should mind your own business, if I was you, miss,' she said rudely. ‘You know nothing about these matters. It's because you're all so soft with the girl that she's got so out of hand.'

She darted after Swallow again, her hand upraised to strike her. Aroma was so angry that she turned round and began marching back to the house. On her way she passed Musk, who was hanging some handkerchiefs out to dry under the crab-apple tree. Musk looked over her shoulder to see what all the shouting was about.

‘I should leave them to it, if I were you,' she advised Aroma. ‘Just let them get on with it and see what happens.'

She signalled to Swallow with her eyes as she said this. Swallow understood her immediately and dashed inside the house to take refuge with Bao-yu. The other servants smiled at each other in pleasurable anticipation.

‘Now there'll be trouble,' they said. ‘Now we shall really see something!'

‘Why don't you calm down a bit?' Musk said to the woman. ‘Surely you're not going to set yourself up against the whole apartment?'

The woman saw her daughter go up to Bao-yu inside the house and Bao-yu take her by the hand.

‘Don't worry,' Bao-yu said to the girl. ‘I'll look after you.'

Swallow, still crying, told him the whole story of Oriole and the willow-twigs. Bao-yu was deeply shocked, but, for form's sake, pretended to blame Swallow for what had happened.

‘It's bad enough having rows in here; what do you want to go upsetting your aunt outside for?'

‘What this good woman said just now is right,' Musk said to the other servants. ‘Perhaps we
are
too slack. Perhaps we
don't
know enough about these matters to deal with them properly ourselves. What we need is someone whose opinion she will listen to, someone who really knows what's what.'

She turned to a little maid standing near by.

‘Go and fetch Patience. If Patience can't come, fetch Mrs Lin.'

As the little maid ran off on her errand, the other women in the compound drew round Swallow's mother with interested smiles.

‘Better ask them to call that child back,' they advised her. ‘You don't want Miss Patience coming here.'

‘If she's “Miss Patience”, she'll just have to be patient and listen to reason,' said the woman defiantly. ‘I never yet heard of a mother being disciplined for trying to discipline her own daughter.'

The others smiled at her ignorance.

‘You don't know who Miss Patience is, though. Miss Patience is Mrs Lian's Number One. If she's in a good mood, you might get away with a telling-off; but if she's not – my goodness, you're in for a packet of trouble!'

Just then the little maid came back with a message.

‘Miss Patience was busy, but she asked me why I'd come and when I told her she said, “Tell her she's dismissed and get Mrs Lin on the corner gate to give her forty strokes of the bamboo.”'

It was now the mother's turn for tears and entreaties.

‘It wasn't easy for me to get this job,' she said. ‘I shan't get another like it. And I'm a widow, too: I've no one else at home. From your point of view that's an advantage, because I can give all my attention to serving you. But it means that it's my only livelihood: if you turn me out, I don't know how I'm going to keep alive.'

Aroma began to relent.

‘But if you want to stay here,' she said, ‘you really must learn to behave yourself and do what you are told. You
really can't go around hitting people all the time. What are we to
do
with a person like you? This daily shouting and quarrelling is giving our place a bad name.'

‘Take no notice of her,' said Skybright. ‘Send her packing. Who's got time to stand around arguing with people like her?'

Swallow's mother appealed to the other maids:

‘I admit I was in the wrong; but if you tell me what to do, I'm willing to learn. Give me another chance, young ladies, you won't regret it. It's a “work of merit”, don't forget, to help another person mend their ways.'

She appealed to Swallow:

‘It was on account of beating you that I got into this trouble. And I didn't beat you very hard. Put in a word for me, there's a good child!'

Bao-yu himself now felt sorry for the woman and told her that she could stay.

‘But no more trouble, mind! Any more trouble from you, and you'll be out like a shot –
and
you'll be given the beating!'

The woman thanked first Bao-yu and then all the others in turn. She had already left when Patience looked in to see what the trouble was.

‘Forget about it!' said Aroma. ‘It's all over.'

‘Well, they say “where mercy is possible, mercy should be shown”,' Patience observed. ‘If you can see your way to letting her off, it certainly saves us some trouble. I can't understand it, though. It's only a few days' since Their Ladyships left, yet already the whole place seems to be in a state of mutiny. Before I've finished dealing with trouble in one place, it crops up in another. I scarcely know which way to turn.'

‘I thought we were the only ones,' said Aroma. ‘I didn't realize there were others.'

‘Oh, this is
nothing
!' said Patience. ‘There have been seven or eight outbreaks just during these last three or four days. Compared with the others, this trouble of yours is a very minor affair. We've had something much more upsetting – and more ridiculous – than this to contend with.'

Aroma was curious to know what it was. But as to whether Patience told her or not, that will be revealed in the chapter which follows.

‘Something no one would ever guess. You'll have a good laugh when I tell you. I won't tell you for a few days yet, though, because I still haven't quite got to the bottom of it – and I haven't got time now, in any case.'

As if to prove that this was so, one of Li Wan's little maids arrived at that very moment:

‘Miss Patience? Oh, there you are! Mrs Zhu's waiting for you. Why don't you come?'

‘I'm coming, I'm coming,' said Patience, breaking away from the others with a laugh and hurrying after her.

Aroma and the others laughed, too.

‘She's grown as popular as hot cakes since her mistress's illness: everyone wants her at once!'

Patience's business with Li Wan is no part of our story. We remain with Bao-yu and the rest at Green Delights.

‘Swallow,' said Bao-yu, ‘you and your mother had better go to Miss Bao's place and make it up with Oriole. You can't let her go on feeling offended.'

‘Yes,' said Swallow, and hurried out to find her mother. Bao-yu shouted to them through the window as the two of them were crossing the courtyard:

‘Don't say anything about it in front of Miss Bao. You don't want Oriole to get a telling-off.'

Mother and daughter shouted back a reply and continued on their way, conversing as they went. Swallow began reproaching her mother when they were out of earshot:

‘I
told
you, Mother, again and again, but you wouldn't believe me. All this trouble you've got yourself into – it was so unnecessary.'

‘Get along with you, little hussy!' said her mother, laughing. ‘You know what the proverb says: “Never suffer, never learn”. I've learned my lesson. I don't need any lectures from you!'

‘If only you could be content with the job you've got, Ma, and not be always pushing forward so,' said Swallow gently. ‘There are all sorts of benefits to be had from working here, after you've been here some length of time. I'll tell you just one of them. Bao-yu says that when the time comes, he's going to ask Her Ladyship to give us maids –
all
of us, that is, not just the ones who work in his room – our freedom, so that you can marry us to whoever you like. What about that for a start?'

‘
Really
?' Her mother's delight was tempered with incredulity.

‘Why should I tell a lie?'

The pious invocations which this news evoked continued until they were almost at All-spice Court. They arrived there when Bao-chai, Dai-yu, Aunt Xue and the others were having lunch. Swallow and her mother waited until Oriole came out to make the tea, then, as she emerged, Swallow's mother stepped forward to make her apology.

‘I'm afraid I was a bit hasty just now, miss. I said some things I shouldn't have done. I hope you won't hold it against me. Anyway, I'm very sorry.'

Oriole, all smiles, begged them both to be seated and would have given them tea; but mother and daughter said they had business to attend to and took their leave. They were already on their way back to Green Delights when Éitamine came hurrying after them.

‘Just a minute, just a minute!'

She was holding a little packet which she wanted them to deliver to Parfumée for her. It was rose-orris, she explained, for the face.

‘That's a bit unnecessary, isn't it?' said Swallow. ‘They must have plenty of it there they'd be only too willing to give
her if she wanted any. Why go to the trouble of sending her some?'

‘What they do with theirs is their concern,' said Étamine. ‘This is mine and I want to give it to her as a present. Please take it with you.'

Swallow could scarcely refuse.

When she and her mother got back to Green Delights, Jia Huan and Jia Cong were with Bao-yu inside, having arrived on a formal visit a few moments previously to inquire about his health. Swallow turned to her mother.

‘Now, Mother: I'll go in alone. There's no need for you to come in with me.'

Her mother received this without a murmur. All her former wilfulness was quite forgotten and she stood docilely outside while Swallow entered.

Bao-yu, seeing her come in, realized that it was only to report the successful conclusion of her mission and nodded to her curtly to show that he had understood. There was therefore no need for her to say anything, and after standing silently for a few moments inside the doorway, she slipped out again, signalling with her eyes to Parfumée as she did so to follow her into the outer room. There she handed the packet to her and told her in an undertone what Étamine had asked her to say.

Bao-yu, having nothing whatever to talk to his visitors about, had been idly following this transaction out of the corner of his eye, and when Parfumée came in again, he asked her what it was that she was holding. Parfumée told him and handed him the packet. He praised Étamine's thoughtfulness while opening it up to have a look.

Jia Huan craned forward and smelt the powder's cool, delicious scent. Stooping down, he fished a sheet of paper from inside his boot.

‘Give us a bit, brother!' he said, holding the paper out for Bao-yu to pour some in.

Bao-yu would have given him some, but Parfumée was unwilling that Étamine's gift to her should be shared.

‘No, don't take any of that,' she said. ‘I'll get some more for you from outside.'

Bao-yu, divining the reason for her reluctance, quickly did the packet up again.

‘Here you are. Hurry up and get some more then.'

Parfumée took the packet, and having stored it safely away in the room where she kept her things, looked in the drawer of her vanity-case for her own supply, only to find that the box she had kept it in was empty – why she could not imagine, because she was sure there had been some left in it that morning. But when she asked the others, of course, no one knew anything about it.

‘There's no time to bother about that now,' said Musk. ‘Obviously it must have been someone from this room. They must have found themselves short and “borrowed” yours. Give him something else. It doesn't matter what: he'll never know the difference. Anything to get rid of them, so that we can get on with our lunch!'

Following this advice, Parfumée made up a little packet of jasmine-scented face-powder and took it inside to the boys. Jia Huan, grinning broadly, stretched out his hand to receive it, but she threw it contemptuously on the kang and he had to stoop down to pick it up. When he had stowed it inside the breast of his jacket, he and Jia Cong finally took their leave.

With Jia Zheng permanently away and Lady Wang and the other ladies now also absent, Jia Huan had lately taken to staying away from school for several days at a time on the pretext that he was ill; he therefore felt no compunction in entering his mother's courtyard during the daytime. He did so now, very pleased with himself, to look for Sunset, whom he found chatting with Aunt Zhao.

‘Look, I've brought you something nice,' he said, going up to her, all smiles, and holding out the packet: ‘something for your face. You know you're always saying how good rose-orris is for skin troubles – how much better than the silver powder you get from outside – well, have a look at this!'

Sunset opened the packet, took one look at its contents, and let out a hoot of laughter.

‘Who did you get this from?'

Jia Huan told her.

‘They've been having you on,' said Sunset. ‘This stuff isn't rose-orris, it's jasmine face-powder.'

Jia Huan looked again. It did in fact have a slightly pinkish tinge, and when he sniffed it, he found that it had a sweet, almost sickly perfume, quite unlike the clean, fresh scent of the orris.

‘Well, anyway, it's good stuff,' he said. ‘Orris or this stuff, it's all powder, isn't it? You can keep it to use on your face. This is still better than anything you could buy from outside.'

Sunset put it away resignedly.

Aunt Zhao eyed her offspring scornfully.

‘You don't think if they'd got anything really good they'd give it to
you
, do you? I'm not surprised she made a fool of you; I'm surprised you bothered to ask her for it. Take it back and throw it in her face, that's what you ought to do. Now that the others are all either chasing around the countryside after this funeral or lying with their toes curled up in bed is just the moment for a good old row. Stir them all up a bit. Pay them back for some of the things they've done to us in the past. No one's going to be bothered to dig a little thing like this up in two months' time when they're all back again. And even if they do, you've got a good excuse. Bao-yu's your elder brother; you can't do anything to offend him, I agree. But that doesn't mean that you have to put up with what every little cat or dog of his chooses to do to you.'

Jia Huan hung his head.

‘It's not worth a quarrel,' said Sunset, defending him. ‘Much better just grin and bear it, whatever we think.'

‘Just stay out of this, will you?' said Aunt Zhao. ‘It's got nothing to do with you. He knows he's in the right. It's a golden opportunity to go and tell these little hussies exactly what he thinks of them.' She pointed at Jia Huan scornfully. ‘Pah! Spineless creature! If ever
I
say a word out of place or give you the wrong thing by mistake,
I
get black looks from you soon enough! Oh yes, you can be very fierce with your own mother! But when some little chit of a girl makes a fool of you, you take it lying down. How can you expect the servants to respect you when you grow up if you always behave like this? Oh, you're so useless, you make me sick!'

Shamed and angered by her words, yet still not daring to act upon them, Jia Huan made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

‘It's all very well to talk, but
you
wouldn't dare to go there any more than I would. You want me to go back there and have a row with them, don't you? All right, suppose I do and they tell the school. I'm the one who'll feel the pain when I get beaten, not you. You're always stirring me up to do things; then, when I get beaten and sworn at, you just keep your head down and say nothing. This time you're trying to stir me up to have a row with these girls. Well, if you're not afraid of Tan-chun, why don't you do it yourself? Then perhaps in future I might take a bit more notice of what you said.'

His words touched Aunt Zhao on the raw.

‘What?' she screamed. ‘Me afraid of my own flesh and blood, of my own daughter that I once carried inside me? That's a good story!'

She snatched up the packet of orris-powder from where Sunset had placed it and went rushing off in the direction of the Garden. Sunset, having found expostulation in vain, slipped off to another apartment to shelter from the storm. Jia Huan slunk off through the ornamental gate to play on his own outside.

As Aunt Zhao, still in a highly combustible state, went charging into the Garden, who should she run into but old Mamma Xia, that aunt of Swallow's who was also the foster-mother and implacable enemy of Nénuphar. From Aunt Zhao's livid face and bloodshot eyes it was evident to the old nannie that she was in a very nasty temper. Mamma Xia politely inquired where she was going.

‘Now even the little painted actresses who haven't been with us more than a few days are discriminating against us. I could take it from anyone else, but to have little creatures like that putting you in your place – it's more than flesh and blood can bear!'

As these sentiments, insofar as she could make sense of them, seemed very much in accord with her own, Mamma Xia asked her, with some interest, precisely what it was that had
upset her. Aunt Zhao explained how Jia Huan had asked for rose-orris and been fobbed off with ordinary face-powder.

‘My dear Mrs Zhao,' said Mamma Xia, ‘have you only now begun to realize what they are like? Why, what you have just told me is nothing! The other day they were even burning ghost money in here – and Bao-yu sticking up for them, if you please! If anyone else brings anything into the Garden, it's all “unclean, unclean!” – there's no end of a fuss. But ghost money, than which there's nothing more unclean that
I
know of, that's all right, apparently. You're the most senior person after Her Ladyship, Mrs Zhao. I think you ought to put your foot down for once. I'm sure if you did, everyone would respect you for it. If you ask me, players is only trash anyway, so even if you upset them, there's nothing much they can do about it. Let these two things, the powder and the ghost money, be your justification for making an example of them. I'll support you with my evidence. Give them a taste of your authority now and you will find it that much easier to deal with other things later on. Even if the young mistresses don't like it, they're not going to side against you with riff-raff like these.'

Aunt Zhao's resolve was strengthened by this encouragement.

‘I didn't know about the ghost money,' she said. ‘Tell me what happened.'

Mamma Xia did so, in great detail, concluding with a further incitement to action.

‘Go and have it out with them, Mrs Zhao! We'll stand by you if there's any trouble.'

These words were as music in Aunt Zhao's ears. Emboldened by them, she marched off without more delay to Green Delights.

It chanced that Bao-yu was out when she arrived (he had heard that Dai-yu was visiting All-spice Court and gone off to join her there) and Parfumée was having lunch with Aroma and the other maids. The girls all rose to their feet as Aunt Zhao entered and politely invited her to join them.

‘Won't you have some lunch, Mrs Zhao? Why are you in such a hurry?'

Ignoring the invitation, Aunt Zhao stepped forward, threw the powder she was carrying in Parfumée's face and, with stabbing index finger for emphasis, began shouting at her abusively.

‘Little strumpet! You're a bit of bought goods, that's all you are. We paid down money and bought you, so that you could be trained to sing for our entertainment. Play-actors and prostitutes are the class of people you belong to; the lowest servant in this household is still a few steps above you. So what makes you think you have the right to go discriminating between one person and another? It's no skin off your nose if Bao-yu wants to give something of his away to somebody: what business have you to try and stop him? I suppose you thought when you palmed that stuff off on Huan that he wouldn't know the difference. Well, let me tell you: Master Huan is Bao-yu's brother, whatever you may think of him, and that means he's one of the masters, and there's no cause for you to look down on him.'