NOTES ON CHIUCHOW OPERA
85
she hears the beat of the second night watch she runs around her chamber, throwing up her sleeves in despair. A servant girl brings in her wedding dress folded on a tray. Then Mr. Yang's wet-nurse drops in, calling her already 'wife' of her Hsiu-tsai and promising to come and comb her hair next morning. Then Liu-niang's mother comes to console her. The daughter says, "Mother, how can you send me away! I am your own flesh and blood."
Her mother then tells her that they have sent T'ao-hua to Hsi-lu, and it may be that she will not return until tomorrow night. This would mean that Liu-niang would have to leave for the Yang family's residence without her maid.
At this thought the daughter pretends to resign herself to her fate. She asks her mother to go to bed and promises that she will do the same. As soon as the mother has left, the daughter decides that on no account will she go to the Yang family. If T'ao-hua does not return with news from her cousin Kuo, she will drown herself in the river.
At the 3rd watch she writes her last letter to her parents, and runs out of the house.
Act VIII
Hurrying to the river, pitying herself, she suddenly bumped into T'ao-hua. And here starts the happy end to this tale. The daughter Su relates that suddenly the Yang family have pressed her parents in agreeing to the marriage on the next day and that now she only has suicide as a solution to her grief. At this moment the handsome cousin Kuo arrives. Having heard of the confusion from T’ao-hua he insists on returning with her in order to put matters straight. T'ao-hua is always alert and watching out, to see whether they are being followed. The old ferryman, who has listened to their conversation, calls T'ao-hua and offers to take the couple across the river to facilitate their elopement. When the three of them are on the ferry Tao-hua asks for Liu-niang's shoes, which she drops on the bank of the river
Act IX
At sunrise Yang's wet-nurse hurries to Liu-niang's chamber to dress her hair for the wedding. Calling 'Hsiu-tsai Niang' in all directions, she cannot find the girl and quickly alerts the parents. Sear-