The Warning Voice (21 page)

Her courage took all of them by surprise.

‘You're a good sort, Sunset, I always knew you were,' said Bao-yu admiringly, ‘but there's really no need for you to tell her. All I've got to do is say that I stole those things for a lark, to give you all a scare, and that now there's been all this fuss about them, I feel I ought to own up. There's only one thing, though. I really must ask you girls to be more careful in future, for all our sakes.'

‘I did it,' said Sunset, ‘it's up to me to face the music.'

Patience and Aroma disagreed.

‘That's not the way to look at it at all. If you confess, they're sure to worm something out about Mrs Zhao, and that will upset Miss Tan again when she gets to hear about it. You'd much better let Master Bao accept responsibility, so that everyone is cleared. Nobody except the few of us here knows the truth, so it's terribly easy for him to do this. But as Master Bao says, you really will have to be more careful
in future. If you
must
take anything, at least wait until Her Ladyship is here. When she is back, you can give the whole room away if you like, because then
we
shan't be involved!'

Sunset hung her head and pondered for some moments before finally agreeing to go along with this.

When it was settled exactly what they should do, Patience went with Parfumée and the two maids from Lady Wang's apartment to the watch-room, called out Fivey, and quietly instructed her to say that the Lycoperdon Snow as well as the Essence of Roses had been given to her by Parfumée. Fivey was deeply grateful. Patience next took Fivey with her to Wang Xi-feng's place, where Lin Zhi-xiao's wife and her helpers had already been waiting for some time with Fivey's mother in their custody.

‘I brought her here first thing,' Lin Zhi-xiao's wife told Patience in reference to her prisoner. ‘As that left no one to get the lunch ready, I put Qin Xian's wife temporarily in charge, so that the young ladies should get their meal on time.'

‘Who is Qin Xian's wife?' said Patience. ‘I don't think I know her.'

‘She does night duty in the south corner of the Garden. She doesn't do anything in the daytime: that's probably why you don't know her. Very high cheek-bones and big round eyes. She's a very clean, lively little body.'

‘Yes, of course you know her, Patience,' said Silver. ‘She's the auntie of Miss Ying's maid, Chess. Chess's father works for Sir She, but her uncle and auntie work on this side of the mansion with us.'

Patience remembered with a laugh.

‘Oh,
that
's who you've chosen! If you'd told me that, I should have known who you meant.' She laughed again. ‘You've been a bit too quick with your appointment. It's all cleared up now, this business. The waters have gone down and we can see the rocks. We know now who the real thief was who stole that stuff from Her Ladyship's room. It was Bao-yu. He went round to Her Ladyship's apartment some days ago and asked Silver and Sunset for something and just for a tease the silly girls said he couldn't have it, because they couldn't give him anything while Her Ladyship was
away. So he simply slipped in later on when they weren't there and helped himself. When these two found the things missing, they were scared out of their wits. But as soon as Bao-yu heard that someone else had been accused of taking the things, he told me everything. He even brought them round to show me, so that I could see they exactly corresponded with what the girls had told me was missing. As regards the Lycoperdon Snow, that was something that Bao-yu had got from outside. He's been giving it away to all kinds of people – not only in the Garden: one or two of the old nannies begged some off him to give to their relations outside and
they
have given it to other people as presents; and Aroma gave some of hers to Parfumée and that lot and
they
've been passing the stuff to and fro between themselves. So you see, it's all over the place. The two baskets that were left in the jobs room the other day for Their Ladyships are still untouched. The seals on them haven't been broken. So as far as
that
's concerned, there are no grounds for a charge either. If you'll wait here a few moments longer, I'm just going in to tell Mrs Lian about this and we'll see what she says.'

Patience then went into the bedroom and repeated almost verbatim to Xi-feng what she had just been telling Lin Zhi-xiao's wife.

‘That's as may be,' said Xi-feng when she had finished; ‘but we all know how ready Bao-yu is to cover up for other people. Someone only has to go to him with a hard-luck story – especially if there's a bit of flattery thrown in with it – and he'll own up to anything in order to get them off. If we believe him now, how are we going to deal with more serious cases later on? I think this needs going into more carefully. I think you ought to get hold of those girls from Her Ladyship's apartment and – well, I wouldn't say torture them exactly, but you could get them to kneel in the sun on broken china all day without anything to eat or drink. If one day doesn't make them confess, just go on day after day until they do. They're sure to give in sooner or later, even if they're made of iron.'

‘And as for that Liu woman,' she went on, ‘you know what
they say. When flies gather on an egg, it's generally a sign that there's a crack in it. She may not have stolen anything in this instance, but I suspect she's no better than she should be for all these people to be complaining about her. We'll let her off the flogging, of course, but I still think we ought to dismiss her. Even in the Emperor's court people get punished for what they call “guilt by association”, so she can't complain if we sack her merely on suspicion.'

‘Yes, but why bother?' said Patience. ‘They say that where mercy is possible, mercy should be shown. What better opportunity than this could you have of showing yourself merciful for once? Look at all the trouble you give yourself on account of these people, and they aren't even your own household: it's Lady Xing's household that you really belong to. And where does it all get you, at the end of the day? All you do is build up a lot of resentment against yourself and turn a lot of nasty, spiteful people into your enemies. A person in your delicate health can't afford to make enemies. Think of all the time it took you to conceive a man-child – and then to lose it after carrying it inside you for six or seven months! How do we know that that wasn't brought on by too much worrying about this sort of thing? I think you ought to start straight away taking things a bit easier. Close your eyes to things a bit oftener. “What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve”!'

Patience's little homily quickly won Xi-feng to a better humour.

‘All right,' she said, laughing. ‘Do as you wish.
I
'm not going to get myself worked up about it.'

‘Now you're talking sensibly,' said Patience happily, and going out of the bedroom, proceeded to dispose of the business outside in the way she had all along intended to.

But more of that in the next chapter.

As she turned to go, Cook Liu and her daughter stepped quickly forwards and kotowed their thanks. Lin Zhi-xiao's wife then conducted them back to the Garden, after which she reported to Li Wan and Tan-chun on what had been decided. Both expressed satisfaction that the matter had resolved itself without further trouble.

The victory that had been gained by Chess and her faction was thus an empty one, and Qin Xian's wife, that aunt of Chess's whose installation in the kitchen had been the result of long and patient scheming, enjoyed only the briefest moment of triumph in her new position. Beginning in a great bustle with a general stock-taking of the kitchen's equipment and stores, she detected – or claimed to detect – various shortages in the latter. Two piculs of best rice were missing, she said; a month's supply of general purpose rice had been overdrawn; and the amount of charcoal was not what it was supposed to be. While so engaged, she was at the same time making discreet arrangements for the conveyance of various ‘presents' (they included, by a strange coincidence, a pannier of charcoal and a load of rice) to Lin Zhi-xiao's quarters outside;
and there were to be presents for the clerks who worked in Accounts. She also prepared several dishes for a little repast to which she invited her new colleagues.

‘Now that I've got this job, I rely entirely on your support to run things here,' she told them. ‘So if there are any little matters that I fall down in, I shall look to you all to help me out.'

Suddenly, in the midst of this activity, new orders arrived:

‘As soon as you have finished serving this lunch, you must leave. Liu has been cleared. They're putting her back in charge here.'

Stunned though she was by this news, the wretched woman had at once to begin packing her things, and soon, with drums muffled and colours furled, beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen. The things she had given away to others – pointlessly, it now appeared – had to be made good, in some cases by selling her own possessions. Even Chess, for all her fury, was powerless to help her.

Ever since the fuss made by Silver about the missing objects, Aunt Zhao, the secret recipient of many of the things which Sunset had stolen, had been living in fear of discovery. Each day, as she made her surreptitious inquiries about the current progress of investigations, she perspired afresh. When Sunset herself suddenly came in and announced that Bao-yu had owned up and that there was nothing more to fear, she was naturally very much relieved. The effect on Jia Huan, however, was somewhat different. He immediately became suspicious, and taking out all the things that Sunset had been at such pains to get for him, he threw them in her face.

‘Two-faced thing!' he shouted. ‘You
must
be thick with Bao-yu or he wouldn't have covered up for you. If you were prepared to take those things in the first place, you ought to have kept quiet about it and not told anyone. Now that you've told him, I don't want them any more. They would only remind me of your treachery.'

Sunset swore by the most desperate oaths that she had been faithful to him; she even wept; but Jia Huan was adamant.

‘If it weren't that we used to be friends,' he said, ‘I'd go straight along now to Aunt Lian and tell her that
you
stole
those things. I'd tell her that you offered them to me, but I wouldn't take them. Think about that then, and consider yourself lucky to have got away with it!'

With those words he flounced out of the room, to the great indignation of his mother, who shouted after him angrily.

‘Ungrateful little blackguard! What do you mean by it?'

Sunset meanwhile was weeping as if her heart would break.

‘Poor child!' said Aunt Zhao, trying to comfort her. ‘He doesn't appreciate you. But at least
I
know you are faithful to him. Let me look after these things for you. He's sure to come round to a more sensible way of thinking in a day or two.'

She would have taken them, but Sunset forestalled her, sweeping them angrily into a bundle, which, when no one was looking, she carried into the Garden and emptied out over the lake. Some of the things sank straight to the bottom, the rest floated about on the surface of the water. She was still angry when she went to bed, and cried all night long under the bedclothes.

And then of course there were Bao-qin's presents; but to enumerate them as well would be tedious.

The presents which Bao-yu received from the girls were of a less formal nature and chosen more to mark the occasion than for their intrinsic value: a fan from one, a specimen of calligraphy from another, a painting or a poem.

On the morning of his birthday Bao-yu rose at dawn, and after completing his toilet, put on his most formal clothes and went out to the main front courtyard of the mansion, where Li Gui and three other of his grooms were waiting for him by a table they had made ready with an incense burner and candlesticks and offerings as an altar to Heaven and Earth. Bao-yu lit some sticks of incense and made his prostrations, poured out a libation of tea, and burned the paper offerings and offertory scrolls. Then he went round to the Ning-guo mansion and kotowed his respects to the ancestors, first in the shrine and then in the hall. Emerging from the latter, he knelt down on the terrace outside and ‘kotowed upwards' to his absent dear ones – Grandmother Jia, Jia Zheng and Lady Wang – rising on his knees after each prostration and lifting his clasped hands up in front of him. He called in at the main apartment on his way out and made his kotow to You-shi, after which he sat and talked to her for a bit before returning to Rong-guo House. His first visit there was to Aunt Xue, who made vigorous – though, of course, unsuccessful attempts to prevent his kotowing to her. After that he called on Xue Ke, who was slightly senior to Bao-yu but not enough to warrant an obeisance and whose efforts to prevent a kotow, therefore, were more successful. After exchanging a few words with Xue Ke, he went back into the Garden. There he found Skybright and Musk waiting for him. They were accompanied by two junior maids holding a red carpet which was intended
for kneeling on. Attended by these four, he now proceeded to visit all those in the Garden beginning with Li Wan who were senior to himself. Then back to the mansion again and out through the inner gate to call on Nannie Li and three other of his former nannies, with each of whom he was expected to spend some time in conversation. On his way back the servants inside the Garden gate would have liked to kotow to him, but he would not let them; and when he was once more back in his room, Aroma and the other maids offered him only verbal greetings and did not attempt to kneel. Lady Wang had forbidden the maids to kotow to younger members of the family for fear it might shorten their lives.

Soon after this Jia Huan and Jia Lan arrived. Aroma prevented them from kneeling and made them sit down for a while. As soon as they had gone, Bao-yu declared himself tired out by all the walking he had done and put his feet up on the bed. But not for long. He had barely had time to drink half a cupful of tea when there was a confused sound of chattering and giggling outside and eight or nine maids burst laughing into the room. There was Ebony and Periwinkle and Kingfisher and Picture, Xing Xiu-yan's maid Signet, the nursemaid carrying Xi-feng's little girl Qiao-jie, and two of the maids from Lady Wang's room, Avis and Avocet. He noticed that they were carrying a red carpet between them.

‘Where are the birthday noodles?' they said. ‘See how your doorway is crowded with people who have come to wish you happy returns!'

No sooner were the maids inside than Tan-chun, Xiang-yun, Bao-qin, Xiu-yan and Xi-chun appeared behind them. Bao-yu hurried out to greet them. ‘How kind of you all to come!' he said, and as he ushered them inside, he called out to Aroma to get them all some tea. A great deal of polite tussling ensued before his guests could finally be persuaded to sit down. Aroma now brought in tea for them all on a tray; but they had taken no more than a sip of it when Patience arrived, dressed to the nines in all her finery, and Bao-yu had to get up once more and hurry out to greet her.

‘When I went to Feng's place just now,' he said, ‘the person who announced me told me that she couldn't see me, so I asked if I might see you instead. Why wouldn't you let me?'

'The first time you sent in I couldn't come out because I was doing your Cousin Feng's hair,' said Patience. ‘When you sent in the second time and said that you wanted me to receive you in her place, I naturally couldn't let you because it would have been too great an honour. It is I who should kotow to you – which is what I have come to do now.'

‘But that's too great an honour for
me!'
said Bao-yu, laughing.

Aroma nevertheless brought a chair over and made Bao-yu sit in it. Patience made him a curtsey. Bao-yu, already on his feet again, answered it with a bow and pumped his hands. Patience went down on her knees. Bao-yu knelt down too. At once Aroma raised Patience to her feet, whereupon she curtseyed to Bao-yu once more and Bao-yu, who had got up when she did, answered her with another bow and another pumping of the hands.

‘Now another one,' said Aroma smiling and giving him a nudge.

‘Why?' said Bao-yu. ‘We've finished.'

‘She's finished making her birthday reverence to you,' said Aroma; ‘but it's her birthday today too, so you still have to make yours to her.'

Bao-yu bowed again, delightedly.

‘So it's your birthday too, Patience?'

Patience returned his bow with another curtsey.

Xiang-yun took hold of Bao-qin with one hand and Xiu-yan with the other.

‘At this rate the four of you are going to be making reverences to each other all day long!'

‘Oh, of course!' said Tan-chun. ‘It's Cousin Xing's birthday as well. I'd quite forgotten.'

She turned to one of the maids:

‘Go and tell Mrs Lian about this; and get them to send another lot of presents like the ones they did for Miss Qin to Miss Ying's apartment.'

The maid went off to do her bidding. Now that the fact that today was her birthday had become public knowledge, Xiu-yan was obliged to make a round of the apartments, bowing and kotowing to everybody, as Bao-yu had had to do before her.

‘Interesting, all these coincidences,' said Tan-chun. ‘You expect a few birthdays every month; but it's only when you get a lot of people living together like us that you begin getting two or three of them on the same day. We even have a birthday on New Year's Day in this family: Yuan-chun's. She comes first in that as in everything else. I suppose that's what makes her so lucky. It was great-grandfather's birthday as well, New Year's Day. The fifteenth of the first month is Aunt Xing's birthday and also Cousin Chai's – another coincidence. The first of the third month is Mother's birthday. The ninth of the third is Cousin Lian's. We haven't got anyone with a birthday in the second month.'

‘Yes you have,' said Aroma. ‘Miss Lin's is in the second month, on the twenty-second. It's true there's no one of your surname, though.'

‘My memory is hopeless!' said Tan-chun.

‘Not at all,' said Bao-yu. He pointed smilingly at Aroma: ‘She only remembers it because her own birthday is on that day.'

‘Oh, you're on the same day as her, are you? I don't recollect your ever having come round and kotowed to me on that day,' said Tan-chun teasingly. ‘And Patience: this is the first time I've heard that your birthday was today.'

‘What sort of great ladies do you think we are to be bothering with birthdays?' said Patience. ‘Kotows and birthday presents are not for the likes of us. My birthday is just another day, to be got through with as little fuss as possible. I don't suppose you'd ever have known about it at all if
she
hadn't let on. Now that you do know, I'll gladly come round and kotow to you when you get back later to your room.'

‘I don't in the least want you to do that,' said Tan-chun. ‘On the other hand, I should very much like us to celebrate your birthday for once. In fact, I shan't be content unless we do.'

‘Hear, hear!' said Bao-yu and Xiang-yun.

Tan-chun gave instructions to one of the maids:

‘Go to Mrs Lian and tell her, from us all, that we want to keep Patience with us for the day. Tell her we are going to pool together and celebrate her birthday.'

The maid went off, laughing excitedly. It was some time before she returned with Xi-feng's answer.

‘Mrs Lian says thank you very much for the honour you are doing her. She says she doesn't know what you will be giving Patience to eat, but provided you let
her
have some of it, she will agree to leave her here in peace.'

The cousins and maids all laughed when they heard this message.

‘It so happens that, as the birthday noodles and all the other things needed for today's meals are being seen to by the big kitchen outside, the Garden kitchen has got nothing to do today,' said Tan-chun. ‘So when we've made our collection, we can give it to Cook Liu and get her to prepare this private party for us in the Garden kitchen.'

The others having readily agreed that this would be best, Tan-chun sent someone to tell Li Wan, Bao-chai and Dai-yu what had been decided and invite them to contribute. She also sent for Cook Liu and asked her to prepare a two-table banquet in the Garden kitchen. Somewhat puzzled by this request, Cook Liu pointed out that on this particular occasion the catering was all being done in the outside kitchen.

‘Yes,' said Tan-chun, ‘but this is only for us. Today is Patience's birthday and we want to pool together and have a special little party for her. So do something nice for us, will you? You can bring the bill to my place afterwards and I will give you the money.'

‘Miss Patience's birthday today?' said Cook Liu. ‘Well I never!' And she stepped briskly forward and made her a kotow. Patience bent over in confusion and raised her to her feet.

The cook hurried off to begin preparations.

Tan-chun now invited Bao-yu to accompany her to the ‘jobs room' and break his fast there with some noodles. Having first waited for Li Wan and Bao-chai to arrive, she sent someone to ask if Aunt Xue and Dai-yu would care to join them. Now that the weather was warmer, Dai-yu's illness was very much better than it had been and she was able to come. With so many people in party dresses the crowded office was beginning to take on an unusually gay and festive appearance.
Unfortunately a formal present for Bao-yu – a handkerchief, a fan, some sticks of incense and a length of silk – arrived at that moment from Xue Ke, and Bao-yu had to abandon the female company of the office and go to take noodles with Xue Ke.

Since the Xue and Jia families each had a birthday on this same day, each was supposed to entertain the other with birthday wine. Accordingly, at about noon that day, Bao-qin was brought over by Bao-chai to make a birthday reverence to her elder brother and to wait on him and Bao-yu while they drank the wine. But Bao-chai was impatient of punctilio.

‘There is no need for you to send our wine over there,' she told Xue Ke. ‘This year at least we can dispense with those empty formalities. You can invite our employees from the shop in to help you finish it. Cousin Bao and I must go back to the Garden now. Excuse us for leaving you like this, but we have other people there waiting for us to entertain them.'

‘I won't try to detain you then,' said Xue Ke politely. ‘To tell the truth, our people from the shop will feel freer to call here when you are gone.'

Having apologized to Xue Ke on his own account, Bao-yu accompanied the two girls back into the Garden. As they passed into it through the corner gate, Bao-chai made the women there lock it up after them and hand her the key.

‘Why is it necessary to lock
this
gate?' Bao-yu asked her. ‘There are only a few people using it, and now that you and Aunt and Qin are all three living in the Garden, it must be an awful nuisance if you have to lock and unlock it every time you need to go and fetch something from your place outside.'

‘One can't be too careful,' said Bao-chai. ‘Look at all the incidents you people have been having during the past few days; yet not once have any of our people been implicated. I put that down entirely to the fact that this gate is kept constantly locked. If it were left open, other people besides us would want to use it for the convenience of taking short cuts; and as it would be too invidious to begin distinguishing between who might use the gate and who might not, it is better to keep it permanently locked and stop
everyone
using it, even though it means a certain amount of inconvenience for Mamma
and me, because at least it ensures that when there is any trouble none of our people will be under suspicion.'

‘You heard about the missing objects, then?' Bao-yu asked her.

‘You mean the Essence of Roses and Lycoperdon Snow?' said Bao-chai. ‘I don't suppose
you
would have known even about them if your own protegés had not been involved. No, I was thinking about something rather more serious than that – something which, for all our sakes, I hope will never come to light. If it does, a great many people will be implicated. I can tell
you
this, because you have nothing to do with the management of the household. I told Patience the other day too. Patience is an intelligent girl, and as her mistress cannot get about now, I thought
she
ought to know about it. As I say, I hope nothing will come of it; but if it does blow up, Patience will have been warned and will know how to safeguard herself against being wrongfully accused again. Bear in mind what I am saying so that you are warned, too, if anything should happen. But don't let anyone else know that I told you this.'

They had been approaching Drenched Blossoms while she was speaking. In the pavilion at the centre of the bridge a group of ten or so girls – Aroma, Caltrop, Scribe, Skybright, Musk, Parfumée, Étamine, Nénuphar and one or two others they could not identify – were leaning over the railings looking at the fish in the water below. As Bao-yu and his two cousins approached, they chorused out to them:

‘The party's all ready in the Peony Garden. Hurry up and take your places!'