SCENE V. Interior of cottage scantily furnished, Fên and Liu discovered. LIU. There! You stay here for a few minutes till I return and make the place look a little more comfortable. (Goes into an inner room.) JÊN. Bah! these women are always bustling about their household affairs, “making you comfortable" they call it; I think it the reverse, with their perpetual scrubbing and sweeping. Hollo! What's this? (Sees a man's shoes on the floor.) This is devilish strange! I couldn't have left my shoes here eighteen years ago, for I had but one pair and those were on my feet; besides they would not have remained here all that time. These have been recently worn,—they are too small for me, besides. Where could they have come from? Perdition! She must have a paramour! I'll see into this. (Re-enter Liu. Fên seizes her, and is about to kill her.) LIU. Good Heavens! What have I done that you should want to kill me? JÊN. Say, these shoes, where do they come from? LIU. These shoes-these shoes JÊN. Ah! you hesitate, do you? You know the owner of them perhaps? LIU. Oh yes, I know him well. JÊN. Base woman! She does not attempt to disguise it. He is often here, I suppose? LIU. Yes, for I am miserable when he 's out of my sight. I've been wretched all day waiting for him. JÊN. You seem very anxious about him. I should not be surprised if you were to tell me plainly next that he had slept with you. (Sneeringly.) LIU. Yes, many a night has he slept in my arms, with his dear head pillowed on my bosom. JÊN. (Mimicking her.) Oh! with "his dear head pillowed on your bosom," eh? She'll drive me distracted! (Walking about in a rage.) LIU. (Aside.) Just look at the man how angry he's getting. Wait till I tantalise him a bit. (To him.) You have been away now these eighteen years, and for seventeen years he has never been separated from me. JÊN. I am dying with rage! LIU. You ask who the person is who wears those shoes.-I'll tell you. He is our son. At the time you left I was pregnant, and you had often said should I ever become a mother, if our child was a boy, he should be named Ting-shan, if a girl, she should be called "Golden Lily." These are Tingshan's shoes. JÊN. My son! Where is he? Where is he gone? LIU. He went to the river to shoot some wild geese. JÊN. To the river to shoot― (Aside.) Great Heavens, should it be he! (Hastily.) Tell me, what did he wear? LIU. Why, how frightened you look! He wore a blue gaber dine, a JÊN. Oh! ruin! He's destroyed! (Falls senseless.) (SCENE CLOSES.) THE GREAT WATER-MELON.1 THE Complexion of Miss could compare Set fire to the heart of an amorous youth, But as nothing-not even love-making— Can succeed in this life without taking Some appropriate present to show one has thought Such as ladies love to use; Two sprays of floss embroidered flowers, So that she could pick and choose : This is simply rubbish, but shows the similarity between Chinese "comic" songs and some of our own. I |