While calling her, they quitted the room in a body. Tai-yü remained seated on the bed. Raising her arms, she adjusted her hair, and smilingly she observed to Pao-yü, "When people are asleep, what do you walk in for?"
At the sight of her half-closed starlike eyes and of her fragrant cheeks, suffused with a crimson blush, Pao-yü's feelings were of a sudden awakened; so, bending his body, he took a seat on a chair, and asked with a smile: "What were you saying a short while back?"
"I wasn't saying anything," Tai-yü replied.
"What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat!" laughed Pao-yü. "I heard all."
But in the middle of their colloquy, they saw Tzu Chüan enter. Pao-yü then put on a smiling face. "Tzu Chüan!" he cried, "pour me a cup of your good tea!"
"Where's the good tea to be had?" Tzu Chüan answered. "If you want good tea, you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes."
"Don't heed him!" interposed Tai-yü. "Just go first and draw me some water."
"He's a visitor," remonstrated Tzu Chüan, "and, of course, I should first pour him a cup of tea, and then go and draw the water."
With this answer, she started to serve the tea.
"My dear girl," Pao-yü exclaimed laughingly, "If I could only share the same bridal curtain with your lovable young mistress, would I ever be able (to treat you as a servant) by making you fold the covers and make the beds."
Lin Tai-yü at once drooped her head. "What are you saying?" she remonstrated.
"What, did I say anything?" smiled Pao-yü.
Tai-yü burst into tears. "You've recently," she observed, "got into a new way. Whatever slang you happen to hear outside you come and tell me. And whenever you read any improper book, you poke your fun at me. What! have I become a laughing-stock for gentlemen!"
As she began to cry, she jumped down from bed, and promptly left the room. Pao-yü was at a loss how to act. So agitated was he that he hastily ran up to her, "My dear cousin," he pleaded, "I do deserve death; but don't go and tell any one! If again I venture to utter such kind of language, may blisters grow on my mouth and may my tongue waste away!"
But while appealing to her feelings, he saw Hsi Jen approach him. "Go back at once," she cried, "and put on your clothes as master wants to see you."