"
"I also have a suspicion," replied her mother.
"Yet the room opens on to the stairs, which come down into our room."
"I am going to give her a good taste of the rod to make her speak."
"That is a bad plan, a very bad plan," said her mother. "It is a true
proverb that you must not show family blemishes. If you beat her,
all the neighbors will know, and who would wish to marry her? Let us
rather make her sleep in our room, which has no way out except the
door. We will spend the night up the stairs, and see what happens."
On being told of this proposal, Eternal Life dared not say anything.
And on the higher floor husband and wife slept in peace.
One evening Wu-ban felt his heart seething with passion. Fearing that
he might be attacked by P'an, he armed himself with a knife, which
he used to cut pigs' throats. Under Eternal Life's window, he coughed
softly. Nothing stirred. He coughed more loudly, thinking she was
asleep. But everything remained quiet. He was going back to his house,
in a thoughtful mood, when he saw a ladder left near to a house which
was being built. He seized upon it, carried it away, and put it up
against Eternal Life's window. The catch was not locked. He pushed it
open, climbed over the sill, and silently went toward the bed.
Drunken with joy, Wu-ban was already disrobing himself of his clothes,
when, in the stillness of the night, his ears caught the sound of two
people breathing, instead of one.
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