Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/376

 364 CHINESE LITERATURE

" Lose me not, forget me not, Eternal life shall be thy lot."

The indiscretion of a slave-girl here let Pao-yii become aware that Pao-ch'ai herself possessed a wonderful gold amulet, upon which also were certain words inscribed ; and of course Pao-yii insisted on seeing it at once. On it was written

" Let not this token wander from thy side, And youth perennial shall with thee abide"

In the middle of this interesting scene, Tai-yti walks in, and seeing how intimately the two are engaged, "hopes she doesn't intrude." But even in those early days the ring of her voice betrayed symptoms of that jealousy to which later on she succumbed. Meanwhile she almost monopolises the society of Pao-yii, and he, on his side, finds himself daily more and more attracted by the sprightly mischievous humour of the beautiful Tai-yii, as compared with the quieter and more orthodox loveliness of Pao-ch'ai. Pao-ch'ai does not know what jealousy means. She too loves to bandy words, ex- change verses, or puzzle over conundrums with her mercurial cousin ; but she never allows her thoughts to wander towards him otherwise than is consistent with the strictest maidenly reserve.

Not so Tai-yii. She had been already for some time Pao-yii's chief companion when they were joined by Pao-ch'ai. She had come to regard the handsome boy almost as a part of herself, though not conscious of the fact until called upon to share his society with another. And so it was that although Pao-yii showed an open preference for herself, she still grudged the lesser atten- tions he paid to Pao-ch'ai. As often as not these same

�� �