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her face. As she was at this moment sitting cross-legged on a low wooden couch, the maid carrying the hand-basin went down on both her kneesto bring it to a convenient level for her, whereupon the girls bearing the towels, hand-mirror, cosmetics and so forth also knelt down on either side. Seeing that Tan-chun’s body-servant Scribe was not present, Patience hurriedly stepped forward, rolled back Tan-chun’s sleeves for her, removed her bracelets and tucked a large towel round her neck to protect the front of her dress. As Tan-chun stretched out her hands to begin washing, the woman who had just entered began to make her report:
    â€˜Excuse me Mrs Zhu; excuse me Miss Tan. The school want to draw this year’s allowance for Master Huan and Master Lan.’
    â€˜What’s the hurry?’ snapped Patience. ‘Haven’t you got eyes in your head? Can’t you see that Miss Tan is washing? You ought to be waiting outside. What do you mean by bursting in like this? Would you behave like this if Mrs Lian were here? Miss Tan is a kind young lady and lets you get away with it, but if I tell Mrs Lian when I get back how little respect you show her, you’ll be in serious trouble – and don’t say I didn’t warn you!’
    Thoroughly alarmed, the woman put on her broadest smile and retreated, apologizing, from the room.
    Tan-chun, who had finished washing and was now making up her face, looked up at Patience with a sardonic smile:
    â€˜It’s a pity you didn’t come a bit earlier. You missed the best part of the comedy. Wu Xin-deng’s wife, who has spent a whole lifetime in service, came here without having bothered to look up the records, in the hope of making us look foolish. Fortunately I thought to ask her what the rule was; but then she had the effrontery to tell me that she had forgotten. I told her that I didn’t think she would forget things and have to go off and look them up if it was your mistress that she was dealing with.’
    â€˜I should think not, indeed!’ said Patience. ‘If she
had
ever tried a trick like that on Mrs Lian, she’d have some nasty scars on her backside to show for it, I can tell you! Don’t you believe any of them, miss! They think that because Mrs Zhu is such a kind, saintly person and you are such a quiet, shy young lady they can get away with anything.’
    She turned to address the women who were standing outside the door:
    â€˜Keep it up all of you! Just carry on with these little tricks! See what happens to you when Mrs Lian is better!’
    â€˜Now, now, you know us better than that, miss!’ said the women, laughing. ‘“Let him face the summons that did the offence”.
We
wouldn’t pull the wool over a young mistress’s eyes. We know perfectly well that if a young unmarried lady like Miss Tan was to get really angry with us, it would be more than our lives was worth.’
    â€˜Well, as long as you know, that’s all right,’ said Patience drily. She turned back to Tan-chun. ‘I’m sure you must realize, miss: Mrs Lian is much too busy to think of everything and there must be quite a few things that she’s overlooked. They say “the bystander sees all”, and during the years that you’ve been quietly looking on as a bystander you may have noticed cases in which more or perhaps less ought to be given that Mrs Lian herself has never got around to dealing with. If you were to take this opportunity of putting them right, you’d be doing Her Ladyship a good turn and at the same time it would be a kindness to my mistress which I’m sure she would appreciate.’
    Before she had finished, Bao-chai and Li Wan were both laughing.
    â€˜Patience, you’re wonderful! No wonder Feng is so devoted to you. The way you’ve just put it, you make us feel that even if there are no grounds for altering the rules, we ought to try and find some, just so as