IMMEDIATELY AFTER HER TALK WITH MOTHER Yu, Hsi-feng VISITED .the daughter Yu.

First she frightened her with news of the sudden reappearance of her former betrothed, Chang Hua, and then calmed her by telling of the counter-measures which were being taken, not failing to extol her own services, and to spin a long yarn about how unselfishly she had sacrificed and harried herself and with what discretion she had arranged this and that, and

how she had done everything to protect the two families from disgrace and blame. The second Yu was profuse with her expressions of gratitude and trustfully let herself be taken over to the old Tai tai. Mother Yu, who had not expected to be permitted to come, joyfully joined the two others. But she had had to promise to keep modestly in the background and leave the talking to Hsi-feng.

The old Tai tai was engaged in lively conversation with the young ladies from the Park of Delightful Vision when the three visitors appeared with their attendants.

"Whose child is this?" asked the Ancestress, pointing to the second Yu. "She seems to be a really pretty and pleasing person."

"Does she please you? Do look at her closely!" replied Hsi-feng, smiling; and taking the other by the hand, she drew her forward.

"This lady is our great Ancestress," she said, introducing her. "Quick, make a kowtow!"

The second Yu threw herself on the ground and duly performed the great ceremonial kowtow of salutation. Then followed the introduction of the young ladies present. In the meantime the Ancestress had leisure to inspect the newcomer from head to foot.

"What is your name and how old are you?" she asked the secon '. Yu, who had stepped aside a little and shyly bowed her head.

"We have not got as far as that yet. You must first give your verdict. Is she prettier than I am?"

interjected Hsi-feng, laughing.

The Ancestress put on her spectacles and ordered Yüan Yang and Ho Po to lead the stranger nearer, so that she might inspect her more thoroughly. Amidst the suppressed giggles of the others, the waiting maid Ho Po had to take the stranger's hands and hold them close under the eyes of the Ancestress. After a thorough inspection she took off her glasses again and

declared with a roguish smile to Hsi-feng: "Hm. She is a fine, well-formed child. She almost seems to me prettier than you."

Hsi-feng curtsied with a smile and delivered the long, carefully prepared speech the main points of which she had already told Mother Yu. The Ancestress was deeply touched by her noble-mindedness and willingly consented to the newcomer's taking up residence in the palace even before the expiration of the hundred days' mourning period. The official wedding

ceremony would take place after the period of a year required by good form.

Hsi-feng thanked her, striking her forehead on the ground, then stood up and asked for two serving women to escort the newcomer to Princess Shieh and the Tai tai Cheng and introduce her to them on behalf of the Ancestress. The Ancestress gave her permission and so the second Yu was installed, in accordance "with all the rules of good form, as an inmate

of the western palace. And now she was allowed to move over from the park to Hsi-feng's residence and occupy the suite specially furnished for her in the west wing. It must be mentioned, moreover, that the good Lady Cheng welcomed and approved this change wholeheartedly; for now the position .was clarified and the good name of the beautiful but poor girl, so long left unmarried, would no longer be in danger.

While Hsi-feng thus contrived to give the outward appearance of being selfless and noble-minded, she secretly continued coolly and tena-

ciously her game of intrigue against her absent husband and his new wife. She again sent to Chang Hua and stimulated him by substantial gifts of money to continue the legal proceedings and insist upon getting back his bride.

At the outset Chang Hua had only taken this action under pressure. Chia Yung, who had a meeting with him later on in the course of the negotiations, maintained that he had previously withdrawn from the engagement; besides, the second Yu was a near relation of the Chia

family, and there was surely nothing against her finding a home and board with her own relatives. There was no question, he alleged, of her marrying into the clan. Chang Hua had been in debt to Prince Chen for a long time past and had only taken this action in order to force remission of his debt. The magistrate who had to judge the case was entangled and

involved in friendly associations both with the Chias and with the Wangs, the relatives of Hsi-feng. He had received considerable gifts of money from both sides., from Prince Chen as well as from Hsi-feng. He therefore found himself in some embarrassment as to how he could act.

Finally he gave his verdict against Chang Hua, reprimanded him as a slanderer and a quarreller, ordered that he should be given a few strokes, and drove him out of the Court.

Now, just as he was leaving the Court a messenger from Hsi-feng came up to him, handed him a few silver pieces, and whispered to him that he must stand firm and fight on unflinchingly for his just cause; Hsi-feng would pay his debts and continue to stand by him. At the same time Hsi-feng sent word once more to the magistrate giving him this and that new instruction.

The result was a second action and new proceedings. This time the magistrate sentenced the plaintiff on the one part to pay back the old debt to Prince Chen, and on the other part he awarded him his legal bride and gave old Chang authority to fetch his daughter-in-law from

the house of Chia and take her into his own home. Highly gratified with the double triumph of having "found in Hsi-feng someone to pay his debts and at the same time being allowed to take possession of his daughter-in-law, old Chang set out for the western palace with the magisterial mandate in his pocket.

Hsi-feng, hiding her satisfaction and feigning pained surprise, hurried to the Ancestress and reported the new turn of events.

"Sister-in-law Chen is to blame for everything," she said, concluding her report. "In this matter she acted with an utter lack of discretion. She should have secured a valid document of relinquishment. How was I to guess that this Yu was already engaged to someone else?

Naturally, the first bridegroom was justified in making a claim. Now we shall have the devil to pay!"

The Ancestress had Princess Chen brought before her and rebuked her angrily for her lack of wisdom and discretion.

"But the people did have an indemnity from us in return for which they made out a written document of relinquishment!" insisted the Princess, much astonished.

"Unfortunately, there is no mention of an indemnity and a deed of relinquishment in the legal protocol," interjected Hsi-feng quickly. "Moreover, old Chang declared in a legal statement that it had once been mentioned, without prejudice, that in the event of the death of her

betrothed, the second Yu would marry into our family as a secondary wife. So there is nothing to be done about that. It is just lucky that my husband is away at present and that the marriage with Yu has not yet been formally celebrated. But the question is, how are we to get rid of old Chang? He is here. We cannot simply send the girl Yu away again just after we

have accepted her ceremonially into the family. We would definitely lose face if we did that."

"But neither would we wish to violate the properly acquired legal rights of other people; that would not be becoming of us either. It is best, after all, for us to give her up," said the Ancestress.

"But my mother did pay old Chang an indemnity of twenty taels, in such a year, in such a month, and on such a day, and in return old Chang confirmed his relinquishment in writing,"

protested the second Yu. "My sister Chen is quite right. There is no question of a mistake. Old Chang has told lies to the Court and is only taking legal action in order to extort money !"

"A disgraceful, troublesome lot!" said the Ancestress indignantly. "Hsi-feng, go and get 'the matter put right somehow!"

Hsi-feng obeyed and first of all summoned Chia Yung for a confidential talk. Chia Yung then consulted with his father, Prince Chen. Prince Chen in his turn once more sent a secret message to Chang Hua, warning him not to go too far and challenge the princely anger.

Otherwise he might one day die a miserable death and be left unburied. Let him be thankful for the money, and stop demanding the woman as well. Now was the time to vanish as quickly as possible; the Prince would give him money to get away.

Chang Hua considered the matter this way and that, and discussed it with his parents. The Prince's offer did not seem bad at all, and cash was not to be despised. They agreed among them to demand a further indemnity of a hundred ounces, and early the next morning the parents Chang and their son disappeared from the capital and returned to their native village.

Secretly full of malicious joy, Chia Yung told the Ancestress and Hsi-feng the news of their disappearance. The magistrate had recog-

nized that the allegations brought forward by Chang Hua had been entirely without foundation. Fearing punishment, the whole rascally gang had disappeared. The magistrate had stopped the proceedings, and so the affair was at an end.

Hsi-feng received the news with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, she could not shut her eyes to the fact that if Chang Hua had taken Yu away with him, Chia Lien upon his return would probably do his best to get her back from him again, and she did not doubt but that Chang Hua would willingly deliver her up once more. Thus far, Chang Hua's disappearance

did not change matters very much, and moreover it spared expenses. On the other hand, she had to fear that Chang Hua, being no longer within range of her influence, might gossip and expose her as the instigator of the whole intrigue. That would turn out unpleasantly for her and possibly even draw her into a lawsuit. She now had to protect herself against such an eventuality.

Having thought the matter over, she sent her confidant, the porter Little Wang, after the fugitives. His task was to render the troublesome Chang Hua harmless by hook or by crook.

She left him free to do this either by means of legal accusation on account of alleged theft or some such offense committed on the road, or better still, to have him killed right away by hired assassins. Little Wang's conscience would not permit him to carry out such a dubious order; at the same time, however, he did not like to rebel openly against his mistress and put his position in jeopardy. He therefore pretended to obey her order, kept out of sight for some days, and upon his return dished up a fairy tale for Madame Hsi-feng. Chang Hua, on his journey home, had attracted the attention of higKwaymen by thoughtlessly boasting of all the cash in his possession; on the third day of his flight he had been robbed and murdered and his father had died of a heart attack brought on by shock, in the next inn at which they stopped. Their bodies had been duly examined by a coroner, and they had been buried immediately, right on the spot. Hsi-feng received the news with some suspicion and threatened Little Wang that she would have his teeth knocked in if it should transpire afterwards that he had lied. But she left it at that; for she had no proof to the contrary, and no other confidant than Little Wang at her disposal. From now on her whole energy was directed, under the mask of friendliness, to making the life of the hated rival in the house as difficult as possible.

On his return from Ping an Chow, Chia Lien was greatly taken aback to find his house in the Lane of the Flowering Branch, which he visited immediately, shut up and empty. Only an old doorkeeper, who had remained as caretaker, was there. When he heard from the mouth of the doorkeeper how and why the place was deserted, he got such a shock that his foot slipped

from the stirrup.

Then he went straight to his father, Prince Shieh, and gave him a report of his mission. Prince Shieh expressed his satisfaction and gave him as reward a hundred ounces of silver and a seventeen-year-old chambermaid named Chiu Tung. Chia Lien thanked him joyfully, striking his forehead on the ground, and went on to pay his respects to the old Tai tai and the other relatives.

Feeling somewhat guilty and embarrassed, he went to confront his wife Hsi-feng, but, contrary to expectation, Hsi-feng did not show the slightest trace of ill-humor. Smiling gaily, she came to meet him hand in hand with the second Yu and asked him casually about the journey, and the weather he had encountered, as if nothing had occurred between them. Chia

Lien could not suppress a certain joyful satisfaction when he mentioned that his father had just given him a present of a seventeen-year-old concubine. This was really a new stab in Hsi-feng's heart before the first wound was quite healed, but she controlled herself as best she could, maintained a friendly appearance, and sent two serving women straight over to Prince Shieh's residence to bring back the new member of the household and introduce her properly to the assembled ladies. Chia Lien could not get over his astonishment at the unexpected .amiability of his normally so jealous principal wife. How could he know that she was merely acting a part, hiding quite different thoughts.

At the next opportunity, when she was alone with the second Yu, she said to her, with ostensible concern: "Unfortunately, Sister, your reputation is not of the best. People are whispering about your doubtful past; you are said to have had an affair with your brother-in-law Chen, and that your former fiance scorned and jilted you on that account even the old Tai

tai and the other ladies repeat such things. I am deeply sorry for you. I have been trying to find out who started all this talk, but up to the present without success. I have wanted to speak to you about it for quite some time, but as I did not wish to do so before the staff, I had

to keep mute as a maggot. But the whole thing has so upset me that I have been quite ill and have not been able to enjoy a bite for days."

These and similar rumors she had sneeringly spread herself, and soon there was a general whispering throughout the whole house. There was not one among the female staff, with the sole exception of good P'ing Erh, who did not whisper and murmur within earshot of poor Yu,

and who had not taken part in the game of spiteful remarks and hidden allusions and innuendoes by which one names the lime tree and really means the acacia.

The seventeen-year-old concubine, Chiu Tung, had a much better time. No one dared to censure or criticize her, for she had not come in by a back door but as an open gift from the family Senior, Prince Shieh. Accordingly, she considered herself to be far above the second Yu. Not even Hsi-feng or P'ing Erh impressed her greatly, much less that doubtful person who

had been jilted and had wormed herself into her present position by way of a dubious and clandestine former association. Those were her actual words, and Hsi-feng heard them with satisfaction. She had found in her a suitable tool with which to work against the detested Yu.

Hsi-feng avoided Yu as much as she could. She constantly feigned illness and had Yu's meals served to her separately, and the food she had set before her was stale, unappetizing stuff. Good P'ing Erh was the only one to feel for the girl who was being so badly treated, and now and then she got better food for her out of her own pocket money. Through respect for

P'ing Erh, no one in the house dared to object to this or to tell Hsi-feng. Only Chiu Tung was inconsiderate enough to backbite P'ing Erh.

"Your authority will go completely, Nai nai, if you continue to let your waiting maid do as she pleases," she said to Hsi-feng. "That exacting person, that Yu woman, leaves your good food untouched and secretly gets food from P'ing Erh in the park! What do you say to that?"

Thereupon Hsi-feng rebuked her maid soundly. "In other places the cats get mice to eat, as is proper. But you actually feed my cat with chicken!" she scolded. P'ing Erh did not dare to reply, but to live in such a heartless world revolted her; she wished she were elsewhere, and began to hate Chiu Tung.

Poor Yu also was greatly pitied by the young girls in the Park of Delightful Vision; but Hsi-feng was so feared and knew so well how to dissemble, that no one dared to speak. Only among themselves and secretly did they venture to bemoan and bewail the fate of the second Yu.

And Chia Lien on his part also allowed himself to be deceived by the play-acting talent of his chief wife. When he was at home everything seemed smooth and in the best of order.

Moreover, his interest in the second \ u had greatly abated since he had got the seventeen-year-old as a present. She was to him what dry wood is to a burning flame. Like glue and lacquer they clung together, and he did not stir from her side for whole days and nights together. Hsi-feng, of course, hated Chiu Tung no less than she hated the second Yu, but for the present the younger favorite was a valuable confederate and a weapon against the elder one. She wanted to sit up on a mountain height and look on as the two beasts tore one another to pieces below. Once the first one was

finished, she intended to rush in herself upon the survivor for the kill.

"You are young and inexperienced and you do not know the danger you are in," she whispered to Chiu Tung. "She possesses his whole heart. Even I have to give way before her and submit to her. You will destroy yourself if you run into her so wildly."

In this way she incited and goaded her, and roused the fiery little one to defiance and rebellion.

"I would never dream of giving way before such a person!" retorted Chiu Tung indignantly.

"One can see by your dwindling authority, Nai nai, what your weak-kneed tolerance leads to.

Leave it to me! I will deal with this hussy. She shall get to know me!"

She had deliberately said this so loudly that the second Yu, who was in the next room, had to hear it. She was in despair at seeing herself surrounded by so much malice, wept tfie whole day long, and could not touch a bite of food, but the next day, when the Ancestress remarked her red and swollen eyelids and asked the reason, she was too timid to open her mouth.

Instead, the cheeky Chiu Tung whispered to the Ancestress and the elder ladies that Yu only wanted to impress Chia Lien by her everlasting moaning and groaning and put him out of humor with his two other wives, whom she secretly wished dead.

The Ancestress, too, was completely taken in and said disapprovingly : "There, one sees again what baseness can be hidden beneath a beautiful exterior! Hsi-feng means so well by her, and now she shows her gratitude by intriguing against her benefactress! What a low creature!"

From that hour on, the favor which the second Yu had enjoyed up to now with the Ancestress dwindled away. And when the others saw that the Ancestress withdrew her affection, they gave up all consideration and trampled on the poor thing in such a way that all her desire to live vanished. Only good P'ing Erh remained true to her and secretly comforted her as often

as she could.

For some time past the second Yu had been pregnant. It was inevitable that the ill-treatment which she had to put up with should have a harmful effect on her tender, lilylike body, which was so .much in need of care. She began to ail and grow thin and lose her appetite. By day she felt tired and worn out, by night disturbing dreams robbed her of sleep.

Once her dead sister, the third Yu, appeared to her in her dreams. She held in her hand the bejewelled sword, engraved with the pair of ducks, and said to her: "Dear sister, all your life you have heen Jtoo weak and good-natured. Now you are paying for it. Do not let >ourself be deceived and fooled any longer by that false, jealous woman! Outwardly she feigns kindness and nobility of mind, but within she is full

of malice and baseness, and she will not rest until she has harried you to death. If I were still alive I would not have let it come to this or permitted you to go and live with her. But,

unfortunately, it is your unhappy destiny to have to suffer so much now. In your previous existence you indulged in sensual pleasures and destroyed other people's marriages. Now you have to do penance for it. Listen to my advice and take this sword and kill your enemy,

that I may bring her before the judgment seat of the Fairy of Fearful Awakening! Otherwise you will suffer death yourself in vain and not a living being will regret you."

"Dear sister, my life is already ruined beyond all remedy; but as I have to do penance for former sins, I will submit to my fate and not add to my guilt," replied the second Yu, sorrowfully.

The third "Yu sighed and disappeared. On the following day, when the second Yu was alone with Chia Lien she confided to him that she was pregnant, but that she felt ill and anxious about her own life and that of her'child. Chia Lien sent for the doctor at once. He really wanted Doctor Wang, who was known to be good, but the latter was ill and could not come. In

his stead, on the instructions of Hsi-feng, the servant fetched along the quack doctor, Hu, the one who had previously prescribed that "wolf and tiger cure" for Ch'ing Wen. The remedy which the quack doctor prescribed for poor Yu had the immediate effect of causing an abortion instead of curing her, and the stillborn child which she brought forth with great pain

and loss of blood was a boy.

Chia Lien was beside himself. He sent for another doctor, and ordered his servants to seize the quack doctor Hu, and he wanted to take legal action against him. But Doctor Hu had got word in time and had already fled from the city. Chia Lien raged, and threatened to have the servant who had fetched the quack beaten to death. Hsi-feng, while secretly rejoicing,

assumed the appearance of being if possible even more upset and indignant than her husband.

"Oh, what a misfortune!" she lamented. "Now, when we were so near to seeing our hopes of a legitimate heir fulfilled, this bungler of a doctor must come along and destroy our hopes! It seems to be our fate to remain without a son."

For the sake of effect she burnt incense and performed solemn prayers, imploring heaven and earth to strike her with illness, but to make the second Yu well again and to bless her body with new offspring. She vowed that until then she would fast and say daily prayers to Buddha. Of course everyone in. the house was touched and ceaselessly praised her noble-

mindedness and unselfishness. Hsi-feng went still further. With her own hands she made invalid soup for her rival and had a fortuneteller brought at her own expense to foretell the patient's fate. The fortuneteller, who had been appropriately worked upon be33Q forehand by Hsi-feng, wanted to know if there was a woman born under the sign of the cock who might be bringing misfortune on the patient. Now, in the whole house there was only one person who was born under the sign of the cock, and that was the seventeen-year-old concubine, Chiu Tung.

Chiu Tung foamed at the mouth when Hsi-feng informed her of the soothsayer's verdict, at the same time advising her, in a friendly way, that if she valued her life and the peace of the house she should disappear for some time.

"Ah, what do I care about the foolish talk of a half-starved buffoon like that soothsayer!" she cried, indignantly. "I am just as much of a human being as Yu is. She was in contact with all kinds of people formerly; therefore, why should it be just I who should be said to bring her ill

luck? And anyhow, why is there so much fuss about her child? Who knows where this everybody's darling got her bastard from? She may spin a yarn to our simple master, but she cannot hoodwink us! To have a child! What is wonderful about that, anyway? You wait just a bare year, and it comes of itself. Any woman can do that!"

Just as she was raging away like this, Princess Shieh happened to arrive to visit.

"I am to be scared away because a soothsayer asserts that 1 stand in the other one's way,"

she complained to her. "But I do not know where to go. Be so good as to stand by me, Tai tai!"

Princess Shieh then took her under her protection and reprimanded Chia Lien in her presence. How could he dare to cast aside, for the sake of a mere adventuress, the girl whom his own father had given him? To do so amounted to an affront to his father. And she angrily turned her back on him.

Chiu Tung now felt more on top than ever. Scarcely had the Princess left when she went out under the window of the neighboring pavilion and broke into loud abuse and execration of the second Yu, who was inside. The unhappy girl was completely crushed. That same night,

while Chia Lien was enjoying himself with Chiu Tung, and Hsi-feng was asleep, she came to a sad decision after long brooding. Why should she continue this wretched, wrecked existence? She felt that she would never again be well and happy and that the beloved one was lost to her beyond recall. With the hope of a child shattered by the miscarriage, she had

nothing more in the world to look forward to. Why, then, should she just drag on without a purpose? Death seemed to her to be the only decent way out of her misery. Merely to choose the kind of death was the one problem left. A violent kind of death such as hanging herself, or stabbing herself with a dagger, was repugnant to her. Then she remembered having often

heard that one could kill oneself in a quick, painless way by swallowing crude gold; and her decision was made.

She rose with difficulty from her bed, opened her treasure trunk, and rummaged in it for a piece of loose gold suitable for her purpose. Just as the drum beat the fifth night watch outside, she gave herself a jerk and carried out her purpose. At first the deadly morsel would not go down her throat, but finally she swallowed it with a brave effort. Then she quickly put on a festive robe and her best jewelry, scrambled back onto her bed, and resignedly awaited her death.

It was already late in the morning, and only after being reprimanded by good P'ing Erh, that the lazy waiting maids felt obliged to look in at the sick mistress in the eastern wing, from whom not a call nor an order had come the whole morning. When they opened the door of the bedroom they found a dead woman before them. They ran out again terrified and shouted at

P'ing Erh to come. P'ing Erh felt her heart torn with pity at the sight of the jewel-bedecked corpse, and paid respect to it with a loud lamentation. And the waiting maids and serving maids, who through fear of Hsi-feng had helped so zealously by their rudeness and disobedience to make poor Yu disgusted with life, now suddenly remembered that the deceased had always been a goodhearted, kind mistress who gave no one cause to complain, and overcome with remorse and pity they joined in P'ing Erh's lamentation, as long as Hsi-feng was not present.

Chia Lien was inconsolable, but Hsi-feng tried to outdo his grief, which was genuine, by her own hypocritical mourning. "Dear sister, why have you left me? Is that your gratitude for my love?" she lamented pathetically.

In accordance with Chia Lien's wish, the body remained laid out on a bier for a whole week in the Pear Garden, where he faithfully kept the death watch over it and had the customary funeral rites celebrated for the soul of the departed. But at the instigation of Hsi-feng, burial in the family temple, which he had desired, was refused him by the Ancestress. After a simple funeral, at which only the nearest relatives participated and from which Hsi-feng absented herself on the plea of not being well, the second Yu was laid to rest in a modest little grave outside the city walls, beside that of her sister.