The Warning Voice
‘Little baggage!’ she said. ‘How dare you answer me back! Your own mother hates you so much she’s itching to get her teeth in you. Don’t you go raising your voice at me!’
‘Oriole was only joking,’ said Swallow, weeping – partly from the pain and partly from the humiliation of being beaten in front of the others. ‘Why should my mother hate me? I haven’t burnt the washing-up water! What am I supposed to have done?’
Dismayed that her words should have had such an effect, Oriole stepped hurriedly between them and seized the aunt’s upraised arm.
‘I was only joking, missus. Is it to shame me that you are beating her?’
‘I’ll thank you not to meddle in what doesn’t concern you, miss,’ said the old woman. ‘Do you think I should not be allowed to discipline my own niece just because you are here?’
The crassness of this reply caused Oriole to flush with anger.
‘You can discipline her any time you like, but I don’t see why you should choose to do it when I make a joke,’ she said scornfully. ‘All right, go ahead and discipline her, then.’
And releasing the old woman’s arm, she sat down on the rock again and got on with her weaving.
The next thing that happened was that Swallow’s mother appeared on the scene, looking for her daughter.
‘What are you doing there?’ she shouted as she caught sight of her. ‘I thought I told you to go and fetch some water.’
‘Come over and see what she’s been doing,’ the old aunt shouted back at her. ‘I’ve no hold over her any more than you now, it seems. She’s being very impertinent to me.’
‘Oh, what’s she been doing this time, sister-in-law?’ said the woman, coming up to them. ‘She’s got no use for her own mother any more, I knew that; but I thought she might have a bit of respect left for you still.’
Recognizing the newcomer as Swallow’s mother, Oriole wanted to explain; but the aunt did not give her a chance.
‘Look at that!’ she said, pointing to the willow-twigs on the rock. ‘A great girl like her – you’d think she’d know better! And not content with that, leading other people on to ruin me as well!’
Swallow’s mother was still smarting from her unsuccessful quarrel with Parfumée and was angry with Swallow for not having taken her side.
‘Little strumpet!’ she shouted, bearing down on her wrathfully and slapping her across the head. ‘How long now have you been working with those young madams? – it hasn’t taken you very long to pick up their airs and graces! But don’t you go thinking I can’t lay my hands on you any more. A foster-daughter’s one thing, but you are my own flesh and blood. I can still look after you when I feel like it. Little painted whores, telling me I can’t go inside where you can go! I wish you’d go inside and stay there: perhaps if you stayed inside long enough, you might find a customer!’
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.
CHAPTER 60
As a substitute for rose-orris Jia Huan is given jasmine face-powder And in return for rose essence Cook Liu is given lycoperdon snow
Aroma, you will recall, had asked Patience what in particular it was that had been giving her so much trouble. Patience smiled mysteriously:
‘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 transa
ction 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.