Free The Warning Voice by Cao Xueqin

not to disappoint you!’
    Tan-chun joined in their laughter:
    â€˜I still feel very angry. Until
she
came along, I was hoping to work some of it off on her mistress, but she’s been so reasonable about it all that I hardly know what to do!’
    She called in the woman whom Patience had chased out a few minutes earlier.
    â€˜What
are
these allowances for Master Huan and Master Lan that the school is asking for?’
    â€˜Eight taels each a year, miss. It’s for paper, writing-brushes and refreshments.’
    â€˜But these expenses are already provided for in the
monthly
allowances,’ said Tan-chun. ‘Mrs Zhao gets two taels a month for Huan, Aroma gets two a month for Bao-yu from Her Ladyship, and Lan’s expenses are covered by Mrs Zhu’s allowance. Why should we pay an additional eight taels for each of them to the school? Is that what they go to school for, to collect the money? I think we should cancel that payment from now on. Patience, go back and tell your mistress: I insist that these payments should be discontinued.’
    â€˜They should have been long ago,’ said Patience. ‘Mrs Lian had decided to stop them last year, but with so much going on over the New Year, she forgot about it.’
    The woman who had come for the allowances had to go off empty-handed.
    Women from Prospect Garden now arrived carrying food-boxes containing Li Wan’s and Tan-chun’s lunch. They were preceded by the maids Scribe and Candida who carried a little table between them which they put down in front of their mistresses. Patience busied herself by taking dishes from the food-boxes and putting them on the table; but Tan-chun stopped her:
    â€˜If you have nothing more to say, you had better be about your own business. There is nothing for you to do here.’
    â€˜I haven’t got any other business,’ said Patience, smiling. ‘That’s why Mrs Lian sent me here. Partly it was to bring you the message, but partly it was because she was afraid the servants here might be giving you trouble and she thought I might be able to make myself useful.’
    â€˜Why hasn’t Miss Bao’s lunch been brought here so that she can eat with us?’ Tan-chun inquired.
    At once one of the maids went outside and gave an order to the women who were waiting there under the eaves:
    â€˜Miss Bao’s going to have her lunch here with the other young ladies. Tell them to bring it here.’
    The raised voice of Tan-chun, who had overheard her, issued from behind her in reproof:
    â€˜Who are you ordering about like that? Those are stewardesses out there and senior members of the domestic staff. You can’t make them run to and fro fetching and carrying things for you. Have you
no
respect for seniority? Patience isstanding around here with nothing to do: why don’t you get
her
to go?’
    Not waiting to be ordered, Patience murmured something and hurried out; but the women outside silently waylaid her and with broad smiles prevented her from going.
    â€˜We can’t let
you
go, miss: that would never do! In any case, we’ve already sent someone.’
    They dusted the steps with their handkerchiefs and invited her to sit down:
    â€˜There you are, miss, sit there in the sun and rest yourself. You must be tired after standing about for so long.’
    Patience was about to sit down when two women from the tea-kitchen rushed up to her with a rug:
    â€˜That stone’s too cold to sit on. Here’s a nice clean rug. You sit on this, miss.’
    Patience smiled and nodded:
    â€˜Thank you very much.’
    Another woman came out carrying a cup of tea for her on a tray.
    â€˜Here you are, miss,’ she whispered. ‘This isn’t the tea we usually drink. This is the kind we make for the mistresses. Try some of that for a change.’
    Patience bowed and took the cup, then, shaking a reproving finger at the women, she admonished them in a voice