The Crab-Flower Club

by Cao Xueqin

  She ordered tea to be poured for her visitor, simultaneously darting a look at Bao-yu which he rightly interpreted as an order to make himself scarce. It was in any case time for his dinner, so he went to his mother’s place to have it. She made him go back early, bearing in mind that he must be up betimes next morning.

  When he got back to his own room, Bao-yu found that Skybright had already taken her medicine. He judged it best to let her stay where she was in the closet-bed. He himself slept on the space outside the curtain which Musk had occupied the previous night. This time Musk slept on the clothes-warmer. He had it moved up beside the closet-bed before they went to bed, so that she could be near at hand during the night.

  The night passed by without event.

  Next day, before it was yet light, Skybright was calling on Musk to wake up.

  ‘Come on, Musk! You ought to be awake by now. Haven’t you slept enough yet? You go outside and tell the others to get his morning drink ready while I try waking him up.’

  Musk hurriedly drew on a garment and got out of bed.

  ‘We’d better both wake him and wait till he’s dressed and the clothes-warmer has been carried back to its usual place before we let the others in,’ she said. ‘The old women have already said that he’s not to sleep in the same room as you in case he catches your sickness. We shall never hear the end of it, if they find out that we’ve been sleeping all crowded up together like this.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Skybright. ‘I was thinking that too.’

  The two girls began calling Bao-yu. He must in fact have been awake already, for he got out of bed and began dressing immediately. Musk called in one of the junior maids to help her move the warmer back into place and fold up the bedding. Only when all traces of the previous night’s sleeping arrangements had been effaced were Ripple and Emerald called in to assist Bao-yu with his toilet.

  ‘It’s very overcast again,’ said Musk, when Bao-yu’s toilet had been completed. ‘It looks as if it will snow. You’d better put on your felt.’

  Bao-yu nodded and changed the outer garment he had put on for a more substantial one. A junior maid came in carrying a little tea-tray on which was a covered cup containing a concoction of red dates and Fukien lotus-seeds. Bao-yu drank a few mouthfuls, took a piece of ginger from a saucerful of crystallized shapes held out to him by Musk and put it in his mouth to nibble, addressed a few brief admonitions to Skybright to look after herself while he was away, and went off to see his grandmother.

  She had not yet risen when he arrived at her apartment, but the servants, knowing that he was going visiting and could not wait for her to get up, admitted him at once to her bedroom. He caught a glimpse of Bao-qin lying asleep behind her, her face turned inwards to the wall. The old lady observed that her grandson was wearing, over his formal dress of lychee-brown broadcloth, a dark-red felt cape embellished with roundels of gold thread and coloured silk embroidery. Its slate-blue satin border was fringed with tassels.

  ‘Is it snowing?’ she asked him.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Bao-yu, ‘but it looks as if it will.’

  Grandmother Jia turned to Faithful:

  ‘Give him that peacock-feather cloak we were looking at yesterday.’

  Faithful murmured a reply and went out of the room, returning presently with a magnificent snow-cape that gleamed and glittered with gold and green and bronzy-bluish lights. It was like Bao-qin’s mallard-cape and yet somehow different.

  ‘This is what they call “peacock gold”,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘It is made by the Russians. They twist the barbs of peacock-feathers into a kind of yarn and weave it from that. The other day I gave your cousin Bao-qin a cape like this made out of mallard feathers. Now I am giving this one to you.’

  Bao-yu kotowed and put it on. Grandmother Jia smiled.

  ‘Go and show your mother.’

  Bao-yu obediently hurried off to do so. On his way out he came upon Faithful, standing beside the kang in the outer room. She affected to be rubbing her eyes in order not to have to look at him. She had avoided speaking to him ever since the frightful scene nearly two months earlier when she had vowed never to marry, and Bao-yu was continually being made uncomfortable by her avoidance of him. Seeing her once more preparing to ignore him, he went up to her with a friendly smile in the hope of breaking her silence.

  ‘Faithful, see this! How do you think I look in it?’

  But Faithful simply turned and fled, retreating into Grandmother Jia’s bedroom. Obliged to give up, he continued on his way to Lady Wang‘s. After his mother had seen the cape, he went into the Garden to show himself off to Musk and Skybright. After that he returned to his grandmother’s to report.

  ‘I showed it to Mother She said it seems almost a pity to wear it and I must be very, very careful not to spoil it.’

  ‘That was the only one I had left,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘If you do spoil it I haven’t got another one to give you. And there would be no question of getting another one made for you – not in these parts.’

  She put on her admonitions-for-the-departing-grandchild voice:

  ‘Now don’t drink too much. And leave early.’

  ‘Yes, Grandma.’

  Old women from his grandmother’s apartment accompanied him as far as the reception hall of the outer mansion. Below the steps outside it his foster-brother Li Gui, together with Wang Rong, Zhang Ruo-jin, Zhao Yi-hua, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rui and the pages Tealeaf, Storky, Ploughboy and Sweeper, had been waiting a long time in readiness. The pages were carrying clothing-bundles and blankets, and two of the older men were holding a splendidly caparisoned horse by the bridle. The old women issued a few words of admonition to the men, the men, after acknowledging them with a few perfunctory cries, handed Bao-yu his whip and held the stirrup for him to mount, and Bao-yu, mindful of the precious cape, got up slowly into the saddle. The little party then began to advance, Li Gui and Wang Rong, one on either side, holding the bridle-rings, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rui walking ahead, and Zhang Ruo-jin and Zhao Yi-hua following closely behind.

  ‘Zhou, Qian,’ Bao-yu called out from the saddle to the two in front, ‘let’s go out of the side gate, otherwise it will mean going past my father’s door and I shall have to get down.’

  ‘Since Sir Zheng went away, his door’s kept locked all the time,’ said Zhou Rui, turning a grinning face back to his young master. ‘You don’t need to get down.’

  ‘Even though it is locked, I still ought to get down,’ said Bao-yu.

  ‘Quite right, sir,’ said Li Gui and Qian Sheng approvingly. ‘If you was to get slack about dismounting and Mr Lai or Mr Lin was to see you, they’d be sure to have something to say about it. Even though they couldn’t very well tell you off, like enough they’d blame us for not teaching you manners.’

  By now Zhou Rui and Qian Sheng were moving towards the side entrance. While the point of etiquette was still being discussed, they ran head-on into Lai Da himself, of whom they had just been speaking. Bao-yu at once reined to a halt and made as if to dismount, but Lai Da hurried up and prevented him by clinging to his leg. Bao-yu thereupon stood up in the stirrups and, taking him by the hand, addressed him graciously for some moments before continuing on his way. He had barely done so when thirty or forty pages armed with dustpans and brushes came trooping into the courtyard. Immediately they caught sight of Bao-yu, they lined up in a row along the wall and stood with their arms at their sides while one of their number, evidently the leader, stepped forward and, dropping to one knee in the Manchu salute, wished Bao-yu a good morning. Bao-yu did not know the page’s name, so he merely smiled and nodded. The whole troop remained motionless until the horse and its rider had passed by.

  Bao-yu’s little party now issued out of the side gate, where ten horses were ready waiting for them: one for Li Gui and each of his fellows and one for each of the pages. All sprang at once into the saddle and were off down the street like a puff of smoke.

  At this point our story leaves them and turns to oth
er matters.

  Back at Green Delights Skybright, exasperated to find, after another dose of her medicine, that the sickness still showed no disposition to depart, was holding forth loudly against the whole generation of doctors.

  ‘They’re all cheats,’ she said. ‘They take your money, but none of the medicine they give you is any good.’

  ‘Don’t be so impatient,’ said Musk soothingly. ‘Getting better is always a lengthy business. You know what they say: “Sickness comes like an avalanche but goes like reeling silk”. This stuff isn’t the Elixir of Life. You can’t expect it to cure you in a twinkling. You’ll be all right if you take things easy for a few days. Getting yourself worked up will only give the sickness a tighter grip on you.’

  Skybright’s anger changed direction and vented itself now upon the junior maids.

  ‘Where have you lot all sneaked off to?’ she called out to them. ‘Very bold, aren’t you, now that you see me helpless? Just you wait till I’m better: I’ll have the hide off every one of you.’

  Her outcry produced a solitary response. A little girl called Steadfast came hurrying in and inquired, ‘What is it, Miss?’

  ‘What’s happened to the others?’ said Skybright. ‘Are they all dead? Are you the only one left alive?’

  While she was speaking, Trinket, too, came in – at a somewhat more ambling pace than the other girl.

  ‘Look at this little creature, now!’ said Skybright. ‘Why couldn’t she have come sooner? You’d have come running here fast enough if we’d been handing out monthly allowances or sharing out sweets, wouldn’t you? Then you’d have been the first to arrive. Come closer. I’m not a tiger. I won’t eat you.’

  Trinket edged a few steps nearer. As she did so, Skybright suddenly raised herself from her lying position, snatched hold of her hand, and began jabbing at it violently with an enormous hairpin which she had been keeping concealed under her pillow.

  ‘What do you want this little claw for?’ she said. ‘It’s no good with a needle and thread. All it’s good for is picking and stealing. Shifty eyes and light fingers! A little claw like this can only bring you disgrace. Much better stab it! – and stab it! – and stab it! so that it can’t do any more thieving.’

  Trinket was by now screaming with pain. Musk quickly dragged her away out of Skybright’s clutches and forced Sky-bright to lie down again in bed.

  ‘You’ve only just been sweating after the medicine,’ she said. ‘What’s the matter with you? Do you want to die? If you’ll just wait until you’re better, you can punish her as much as you like. Don’t start making a scene about it now!’

  But Skybright insisted on calling in Mamma Song and dealing with the matter at once.

  ‘Master Bao has told me to tell you that he finds Trinket lazy,’ she said when Mamma Song arrived. ‘She answers him back and doesn’t do anything when he gives her orders, and even when Aroma tells her to do things she says rude things about her behind her back. Master Bao is most anxious that she should be dismissed immediately. He says he will speak to Her Ladyship about it himself when he sees her tomorrow.’

  When Mamma Song heard this, she knew that the story of the bracelet must have leaked out.

  ‘That’s as may be,’ she said. ‘But oughtn’t we to wait until Miss Aroma comes back and tell her first?’

  ‘What I am giving you are Master Bao’s own orders,’ said Skybright. ‘He was most particular that she should be dismissed immediately. I don’t see that Miss Aroma – or Miss Sweetscents or Miss Smellypots, for that matter – has got anything to do with it. I know what I’m doing. Just do as I say. Go and get someone from her family to come here immediately and take her away.’

  ‘You might just as well,’ said Musk. ‘She’ll have to go sooner or later. Let them take her away now and get it over with.’

  So Mamma Song had to go off and summon the girl’s mother from outside. When Trinket had finished getting her belongings together, her mother went in with her to see Musk and Skybright.

  ‘Now what’s all this about?’ she said. ‘If the girl’s done wrong, why can’t you just punish her for it? Why do you have to dismiss her? It doesn’t leave us much face, does it, if she’s dismissed?’

  ‘You’ll have to ask Bao-yu about that when he gets back,’ said Skybright. ‘It’s nothing to do with us.’

  The woman sneered.

  ‘You know perfectly well that I wouldn’t dare. He always does what you young ladies want him to in any case. Even if I saw him and he agreed that she could stay, there’s no guaranteeing that she would if you young ladies weren’t agreeable. Take what you said just now. I know he’s not here it the moment, but even so. If I was to name his name as you did just now without a “master” or a “mister” to it, people would say I was a savage, but for you young ladies, seemingly, it’s quite all right.’

  Skybright became red with anger.

  ‘I called him by his name, did I? Why don’t you go and report me to Their Ladyships? Tell them that I’m a savage and get me dismissed.’

  ‘I advise you to take that girl out of here and be on your way,’ said Musk. ‘If you have anything to say, you can say it later. You can’t stand here wrangling about it now. When have you ever seen other people bandying words with us? Even Mrs Lai and Mrs Lin show a bit of restraint when they talk to us. And as for this business of saying “Bao-yu” instead of “Master Bao”: everyone knows that it’s Her Old Ladyship’s particular wish that we should. Because he’s not strong and she’s afraid he might die young, she likes as many people as possible to use his name, to bring him luck. She even has it written in big characters and pasted up on walls outside to get people saying it. It would be funny if we couldn’t use his name when every water-carrier and dung-carrier and beggar in town can do so. As a matter of fact only yesterday Mrs Lin got told off by Her Old Ladyship for calling him “Master Bao”.

  ‘And for another thing, we senior maids are constantly having to take messages to Her Old Ladyship and Her Ladyship about him, and when we do, we always say “Bao-yu”, never “Master Bao”. Why, I should think we must each of us use his name a couple of hundred times every day. You certainly chose the wrong thing to find fault with when you picked on that one! If you don’t believe me, go round one of these days when you are free to Her Old Ladyship’s or Her Ladyship’s and you will hear us openly calling him “Bao-yu” to their faces. But of course, you don’t have any important business that would bring you in contact with Their Ladyships, do you? All your time is spent doing odd-jobs outside. One could hardly expect you to know the way things are done in here.

  ‘But I’m afraid we really can’t have you standing around here any longer. If you stay much longer, I’m afraid even though we don’t object someone else may come along and ask what you are doing here. If you want to appeal against the girl’s dismissal, you should get her out of here first and take it up with Mrs Lin afterwards and she will speak to Master Bao about it. With all the hundreds of people there are in this household we can’t have just anyone running in and out whenever they feel like it. We don’t even know the names of half of them.’

  By way of emphasizing her point, Musk ordered one of the junior maids to fetch a floor-cloth and begin wiping the floor. At this Trinket’s mother, unable to find a reply and fearful of being caught staying too long, swept out angrily, taking her daughter with her. But Mamma Song was not letting them get away so easily.

  ‘You certainly don’t have much idea of manners, my good woman. After all the time she’s been here, your daughter could at least make the young ladies a kotow before she goes. She may have no other parting gift to give them – I don’t suppose they’d set much store by it if she had – but she might at least have the decency to make them a kotow. You can’t both just up and go.’

  Trinket was obliged to come in again and kotow to the two inside. She also went round to do the same for Ripple and Emerald, but they refused to look at her. After that she departed with her mother, the latter
indicating as they went, by many a sniff and sigh, the hatred that she dared not express more openly.

  A consequence of this latest exposure to the cold and of the accompanying emotional upset was that Skybright was now feeling bad again. At lighting-up time, after tossing about feverishly all day, she was just beginning to settle down at last when Bao-yu returned in a great fret and began stamping and groaning almost as soon as he entered the room. Musk asked him what the matter was.

  ‘It’s this cloak that Grandmother gave me this morning. She was so pleased about it, and now – I don’t know how it happened – I’ve gone and got a burn in it behind the lapel. Fortunately it was fairly dark just now when I came back and neither Grandmother nor Mother noticed anything.’

  He took it off for Musk to examine. It was only a little burn, about the size of a finger-print, but clearly visible.

  ‘It must have been caused by a spark from your hand-warmer,’ said Musk. ‘It’s nothing to worry about. We’ll send someone out on the quiet with it immediately to find a good invisible mender and get it mended for you.’

  She wrapped it up and called in one of the old nannies to take it out for them.

  ‘Tell them it has to be ready by daylight tomorrow. And for heaven’s sake don’t let Her Old Ladyship or Her Ladyship find out about it!’

  The woman was gone a very long time. When she at last returned, she was still carrying the bundle with the peacock cloak in it.

  ‘I’ve tried everywhere – invisible menders, tailors, embroiderers, seamstresses – and none of them will touch it. They all say they don’t know what the material is and don’t want to be responsible.’

  ‘Oh dear!’ said Musk. ‘What are we going to do now? Well, you just can’t wear it tomorrow, that’s all.’

  ‘But I must,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Tomorrow is his actual birthday. Grandmother and Mother have both said I must. Today was only the first day of the celebrations, not his actual birthday. Isn’t it just my luck to burn it the very first time I put it on?’