红楼梦Chapter31_小升初阅读_小升初-查字典英语网

红楼梦Chapter31

While wrapt in these thoughts， he felt much annoyance at not being able to recognise who she was. But on further minute inspection， he noticed that this maiden， with contracted eyebrows， as beautiful as the hills in spring， frowning eyes as clear as the streams in autumn， a face， with transparent skin， and a slim waist， was elegant and beautiful and almost the very image of Lin Tai-yue. Pao-yue could not， from the very first， make up his mind to wrench himself away. But as he stood gazing at her in a doltish mood， he realised that， although she was tracing on the ground with the gold hair-pin， she was not digging a hole to bury flowers in， but was merely delineating characters on the surface of the soil. Pao-yues eyes followed the hair-pin from first to last， as it went up and as it came down. He watched each dash， each dot and each hook. He counted the strokes. They numbered eighteen. He himself then set to work and sketched with his finger on the palm of his hand， the lines， in their various directions， and in the order they had been traced a few minutes back， so as to endeavour to guess what the character was. On completing the sketch， he discovered， the moment he came to reflect， that it was the character Chiang， in the combination， iang Wei， representing cinnamon roses.

She too， pondered Pao-yue， must have been bent upon writing verses， or supplying some line or other， and at the sight now of the flowers， the idea must have suggested itself to her mind. Or it may very likely be that having spontaneously devised a couplet， she got suddenly elated and began， for fear it should slip from her memory， to trace it on the ground so as to tone the rhythm. Yet theres no saying. Let me see， however， what shes going to write next.