The Warning Voice by Cao Xueqin

rent for it as well.’
    â€˜Let me have that bit of rice-paddy,’ said another. ‘I’ll keep you in grain for your cage-birds so that you don’t have to spend money on feed,
and
I’ll pay you annual rent.’
    Before Tan-chun could say anything, someone arrived with a message:
    â€˜The doctor’s arrived. He’s waiting to come into the Garden to have a look at Miss Shi.’
    â€˜Just a moment!’ said Patience as the women went scurrying off to escort the doctor. ‘There’s no point in a
hundred
people going if there isn’t anyone responsible to receive him.’
    â€˜Wu Xin-deng’s wife and Mrs Shan are already waiting for him at the Painted Gate on the south-west corner of the Garden,’ said the woman who had brought the message.
    When Patience heard that, she made no further objection.
    After the women had gone, Tan-chun looked at Bao-chai inquiringly:
    â€˜Well?’
    Bao-chai laughed:
    â€œâ€˜He who shows most enthusiasm in the beginning proves often to be a sluggard in the end; and he who promises the fairest is often thinking more of his profit than of his performance.”’
    Tan-chun nodded in agreement and praised the aptness of the quotation. She turned to the register once more and pointed out a few more names for the other two to consider. Patience fetched a brush and inkstone for her to write with.
    â€˜Mamma Zhu is a very reliable body,’ said the others of one of these. ‘Her old man used to be a bamboo specialist and her son still is; it’s in the family. She’s the one we should put in charge of all the bamboos in the Garden. And Mamma Tian comes from a farming family. The farm at Sweet-rice Village may be only a plaything and not meant for serious cultivation, but if she were in charge of all those vegetable and paddy strips and doing the things that needed doing at the proper times, we should probably get a lot more out of it.’
    â€˜When you think of the amount of land that goes with them, it seems a pity that All-spice Court and Green Delights don’t produce anything marketable,’ said Tan-chun.
    â€˜Oh, but they do!’ said Li Wan. ‘Especially All-spice Court. Half the aromatics sold in perfumers’ shops and on the herb stalls at markets and temple fairs come from plants like the ones grown in All-spice. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more profit to be had out of them than out of anything else that this Garden produces. And as for Green Delights: to mention nothing else, just look at all the flowers produced by that
rosa rugosa
during the spring and summer months! And all the rambler roses and monthly roses and
rosa glabra
and honeysuckle and wistaria on the pergolas: think how much you could make out of them if the flowers were dried properly and sold to tea-merchants for flavouring!’
    Tan-chun nodded enthusiastically.
    â€˜But,’ she reflected, ‘we haven’t got anyone who knows the art of flower-drying, have we?’
    â€˜The mother of Miss Bao’s maid Oriole knows all about that sort of thing,’ said Patience. ‘Don’t you remember her drying a lot of flowers once and filling little baskets and gourds with them to make us presents?’
    â€˜Is this the thanks I get for praising you?’ Bao-chai asked Patience.
    â€˜What
can
you mean?’ said the others, in some surprise.
    â€˜You can’t possibly give the job to her,’ said Bao-chai. ‘You have so many able and willing women of your own who won’t be getting any of these jobs: they are going to think very poorly of me if they know that I am responsible for bringing in an outsider. I can think of someone that you
could
give this job to, though: Old Mamma Ye at Green Delights – Tealeaf’s mother. She’s a very honest old woman; and what’s more, she is on very good terms with Oriole’s mother. You’d much better give the job