"Daiyu burying the flowers" (黛玉葬花, Chapters 27–8). Overcome by a spell of melancholy after a misunderstanding with Baoyu, Daiyu goes to the garden to bury fallen petals at a hillside, wrapping them in silk to keep them pure, and falls in deep weeping at their (and her own) transience. She composed an elegiac ballad for the dead petals, which evokes a sympathetic response in the eavesdropping Baoyu. “Now you are dead and gone, I gather you for the grave, And I’m not yet able to foretell when my own death will be mourned. Daiyu's emotional tirades make sense in the context of the supernatural. Daiyu is a reincarnated Crimson Pearl Flower that through good care by a Divine Attendant-in-Waiting in the heavens (the reincarnation of which is Baoyu) was imbued with sentient life. In exchange for this gift, the flower vowed to be reincarnated as a human, and pay back her caregiver in the form of as many tears as a person may weep in a lifetime. Contrast with Xue Baochai The character of Lin Daiyu contrasts with that of Baoyu's other cousin, Xue Baochai. The two principal female characters are probably conceived as foils to each other. Both are intimately linked with Jia Baoyu, one as his true love and the other as his future wife, and each shares a single character in their given name with Baoyu. Even their physical attributes are opposites: Daiyu is slender and willowy while Baochai is likened to Yang Guifei for her fuller build. Both Daiyu and Baochai take tonics although Daiyu is noticeably weaker, presumably because she has a consumptive nature. The two women are complements of one another – each has exactly the attributes of Cao Xueqin's ideal woman which the other lacks. Daiyu is melancholic, hyper-sensitive and is an instinctive poet who feels strongly about people, events and nature. She is sensitive to malicious gossip but feels insecure and lonely despite her high standing in the Rongguo household. Daiyu can be roused easily to jealousy and makes spiteful, sarcastic remarks, which are interpreted as "tantrums" by her maids. In contrast, Xue Baochai is a darling to the maids and the ladies in the house. Her tactful, prudent nature gets her into much less trouble than Daiyu. Nonetheless, Baochai lacks an emotional bond with Baoyu and is reflected in the book as a model of the competent family manager. Baoyu's maid