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diff --git a/58369-0.txt b/58369-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71c3914 --- /dev/null +++ b/58369-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3143 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58369 *** + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 58369-h.htm or 58369-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/58369/58369-h/58369-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/58369/58369-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/tuenslaveempress00nelsrich + + + + + +TUEN, SLAVE AND EMPRESS + +by + +KATHLEEN GRAY NELSON + +Illustrations by William M. Cary + + +[Illustration: TUEN AT WORK ON THE TUNIC.--_Page 65_] + + + + + + +New York +Copyright by +E. P. Dutton & Company +31 West Twenty-Third Street +1898 + + +[Illustration: _Frontispiece._ THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Page 190.] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This story is founded upon facts in the life of the Empress-dowager of +China, the mother of the present Emperor. + +She was sold as a slave by her father to a renowned government +official, who after a few years adopted her as his daughter, and +afterwards presented her to the Emperor. + +The Emperor was altogether charmed with the gift. In a few years the +slave girl became the wife of the Emperor, second in rank only to the +Empress. From this time she was a power at the Imperial Court. Her +administrative ability in governmental affairs became invaluable to the +Emperor. + +After the death of the Empress, and the death of the Emperor and eldest +son, she became Empress-dowager of China, and reigned as regent during +the minority of her son, who is the present Emperor of China, now about +twenty-four years of age. + +Bishop Galloway tells us this wonderful woman's sixtieth birthday, +celebrated last year, "was to have been the greatest event in Chinese +history for a century or more." The war, however, prevented this +display. He says, too: "It is significant that in this country, in which +women are at a discount, are secluded and kept in ignorance, are +protested against at birth, and regarded as a calamity in youth, the +ruling spirit in all national affairs is a woman." + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + PAGE +NIU TSANG AND FAMILY 2 + +THE VICEROY AND NIU TSANG 24 + +TUEN AND WANG 43 + +TUEN AT WORK ON THE TUNIC (_on title-page_) 65 + +"I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN TO READ" 78 + +THE SAIL UP THE RIVER 159 + +THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT (_frontispiece_) 190 + + + + +TUEN, SLAVE AND EMPRESS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The sun had set in the land where the dragon reigns, and darkness and +silence and rest and sleep, the ministers of the night, waited to come +to their own. But their presence was not needed in the eastern portion +of the province of Hunan, for a wonderful stillness hung over all the +barren landscape, and there was no sign of life. On the banks of the +streams the patient buffalo no longer went his ceaseless rounds, working +the pumps that sent water over the thirsty earth; the shrill cries of +the boatmen that were wont to echo on the river were hushed; not even a +bird crossed the quiet sky; and where the waving rice-fields had once +stretched out proud and green under the summer sun, was now but a lonely +waste that gave no hope of harvest, for man and beast had either +perished or fled. The great Tai-ping rebellion had stirred this peaceful +country to its very centre, and war and war's grim follower, famine, had +swept through this once fertile province, and naught was left to tell of +what had been, save a few scattered ruins. + +[Illustration: NIU TSANG AND FAMILY. Page 2.] + +Suddenly, against the purplish shadows of the distant mountains, a +little group could be seen moving slowly along, the only living things +in all this vast solitude. On they came over the parched levels, but the +man who was leading the way walked with bowed head, as one that saw not, +but only went forward because he must. He was small in stature, and thin +and lithe, while his complexion showed through its dark, the pallor of +the student. His face was of the Oriental type peculiar to the Chinese +Empire, and his carefully braided cue also indicated his nationality. He +had dark, sloping eyes that you might have thought sleepy if you had not +seen them light up as he talked, his forehead was low and broad, his +mouth large, and most amiable in its expression, and when the long +sleeves of his tunic fell back, they disclosed soft, delicate hands, +unused to toil. His costume consisted of an outer tunic of worn and +faded silk, girded at the waist with a sash, from which hung a bag +containing flint and steel for lighting his pipe, a soiled pouch that +had once held tobacco, but was now empty, another bag for his pipe, and +a satin case shaped like the sheath for a short sword, from which +protruded nothing more formidable, however, than the handle of a fan. +His loose pantaloons, dust-stained and frayed, were met below the knees +by cloth stockings, once white, but now dyed with mud, and his shoes of +embroidered felt, the toes of which curled up in a curious fashion, +showed many gaping holes. Upon his head he wore a cone-shaped hat of +bamboo, the peak at the top adorned with a blue button from which fell a +blue silk fringe, and his tunic being cut low at the neck and buttoned +diagonally across his breast, left exposed his slender bronzed neck. + +He was followed by a woman whose dress was similar to his own, and also +much the worse for wear, who led by the hand a little boy about four +years old, while on her other side was a daughter, now almost as tall as +her mother. + +But as the father walked slowly, even majestically, at the head of his +little family, bearing on a pole thrown across his shoulders, all his +worldly goods, there was an independence in his carriage, a pride in his +mien, that told of better days not yet forgotten, and made the evident +poverty of his appearance seem of but little moment. + +A learned man once advanced the theory that in the olden days the +children of Abraham and Keturah, driven forth by unkind kinsmen, +wandered on until they reached the flowery Kingdom, and there the family +of the old patriarch multiplied as the stars of heaven, as the sand upon +the sea-shore, and became a mighty nation. But the centuries came and +went in silence, and man kept no record of their flight; and of the +early settlers of this, one of the first countries inhabited by human +beings, history can tell us nothing. The sons of Han have lived their +lives calmly, borrowing nothing from other nations, asking nothing of +the outside world, caring naught for what lay beyond their vast borders, +and change has been an unknown word in their shut-in kingdom. Progress, +the daring child of modern times, has not found entrance there, and the +Niu Tsang of to-day, leading his family through the forsaken country, +was but a repetition of his long dead forefathers. That was the reason +why, even now, as he toiled wearily along, his mind left the scenes of +the present, so full of sorrow and suffering, and dwelt in placid +contemplation on the events of the past. He was musing on the wisdom of +the sages, on the maxims of Confucius, when, chancing to raise his head, +he saw in the distance the dim outlines of a building. + +"It is the temple of Buddha," he cried, joyfully, turning to his wife. +"There we shall find food and shelter for the night." + +She made a gesture of assent, but her pale lips framed no word, and they +pressed hurriedly forward. When they came nearer the temple, he noticed +the traces of many footsteps, as if a great throng had entered there, +but the same mysterious silence reigned everywhere. There was no murmur +of voices raised in chants of praise, no priests waiting at the +entrance, no din of gongs and drums, not even a sound from the +consecrated animals that had once waited within the enclosure in +pampered stupidity for release from their beastly forms. Bewildered, +oppressed by a nameless fear, Niu Tsang ran past the open portal, and +there he stopped, dismayed at the scene before him, for the rebels, +drunk with success, had in their wild zeal turned against the dumb gods +of the land, and wrought havoc in the temple. Gilded and painted +fragments of helpless idols strewed the floor, the great stone altar, +carved in writhing dragons, had been broken into many pieces, and +incense vases of priceless porcelain, candlesticks of richest cloisonné, +tables of carved ebony, stands of polished jade, and rosaries torn from +the hands of frightened priests, had been ruthlessly destroyed, and now +lay in great heaps of rubbish. The guardians of the temple had fled +before the wrath of the rebel reformers, and the dead gods were left +alone in their temple. Niu Tsang made his way sadly through these ruins +of the once beautiful structure, and came at last into the dismantled +court where his wife and children were already awaiting him. She had +taken the boy in her lap and was tenderly stroking his little wan face, +while the girl, her eyes filled with unshed tears, squatted beside her. +A head of Buddha that had been broken off and rudely tossed into the +court, lay near by, watching them with the same queer smile it had once +bestowed upon its worshippers. The father made a gesture of despair. + +"All is ruin--all is lost--and desolation is spread over the land," he +said despairingly. "Nothing is left here." + +The boy in his mother's lap moved restlessly about and uttered a low +moan. + +"Is there no rice, father?" he cried plaintively. + +"None, my son," Niu answered with a sigh. "I have searched the temple, +only to find it bare. You must wait." + +His wife's mouth trembled pitifully as she listened, and noticing this +he said to her: + +"We must endure as best we can. Night now overshadows us, and there is +no human habitation in sight. We must rest here until the dawn and then +hurry on, hoping ere the day is done to find food for all. If our +strength fail we can but die," he added in a lower tone, as if speaking +to himself, but the woman heard it and looked up. + +"I am very tired now," she murmured, "and the pangs of hunger torment +me. All that I had to eat to-day I gave to the children." + +"I know," Niu said. "I too am hungry, but there is no help for it." So +saying he sat down; but the girl, despite her weariness, built a +pedestal out of the fragments around her, upon which she gently placed +the head of her dishonored Buddha, for she was a most devout little +heathen, and then she crept quietly back into the temple. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +As Niu Tsang sat with his head bowed upon his breast, lost in painful +thoughts, and the woman closed her eyes and leaned against the temple +wall that she might better rest, a shadow darkened the entrance, and +caused them to spring hastily to their feet. In place of fierce +soldiers, however, intent upon pillage or even murder, Niu to his +surprise saw a solitary stranger, without weapon of any kind, eyeing +them curiously. The newcomer even smiled at their evident dismay, and +coming forward saluted them after the fashion of the country, bowing and +gravely shaking his own hands. + +"Be not alarmed, my friend," he said reassuringly to Niu. "I am like +yourself, a belated traveller, and even now my boat waits for me at the +river bank. But as I had never passed this way before, though often had +I heard of the splendid temple of many gods, I seized this opportunity +to visit it." + +As he spoke he looked around him, while a peculiar, half-quizzical +expression lurked at the corners of his mouth. + +"Behold it," Niu Tsang answered, making an expressive gesture. Then he +went on passionately, his anger increasing at every word: + +"The barbarians from beyond the sea could not have been more wicked than +these rebels who have dared the vengeance of the gods. Traitors that +they are! May none be left to bury them, no, not one to offer incense to +their spirits. May they perish miserably, their graves forever unknown, +their ghosts forever homeless." + +"The ruin is indeed great," the stranger said calmly. "Were the gods +deaf to their prayers, that they should thus destroy them?" + +"I know not," Niu said shortly, seating himself. + +Seeing that his companion did not intend to speak further, but was +eyeing him suspiciously, the newcomer continued: + +"You seem travel-stained and weary, honored sir, as one who had +journeyed from afar. May I ask whither you are bound, that you traverse +this bleak plain?" + +"To Lu Chang, foreign brother," was the courteous though terse reply. + +At the title "foreign brother" the stranger started perceptibly, but he +looked fearlessly at Niu from behind the great blue goggles that +concealed his eyes, and went on in the same even tone: + +"You have a long and tiresome pilgrimage, and the way is dangerous, for +robbers and stray soldiers lurk around after the army has passed. It +will therefore behoove you to be careful, lest you and yours fall by +the wayside," and he glanced toward the woman, who stood apart, her back +turned to them. + +"When Ten Wang[1] has decreed a man to die at the third watch, no power +will detain him until the fifth," Niu quoted, sagely. + +"You have spoken wisely, my brother," the stranger answered, "yet it +were better not to tempt destiny. And now, the night comes on, and I +must hasten lest I run into the very dangers of which I warn you." + +Then, as if attracted by a certain pinched look on the face of the child +that slept on the ground near where he stood, he said, quickly: + +"I have provisions, and to spare, in this hamper," pointing to a large +basket that he had set down when he first saw Niu, "and in the morning I +will reach my destination. Will you not accept it, and thereby lighten +a traveller's load?" + +At his words the woman turned toward him with an exclamation of delight, +and her husband's face lost the look it had worn during the interview, +as he now attempted to speak. The stranger did not wait for the grateful +thanks that rushed to their lips, but went hastily into the temple, and +there he found a girl with patient, solemn eyes, seated among the ruins +of her gods. As he entered, he saw that with her ragged dress she was +wiping the dirt from the scarred and grimacing goddess of mercy, and he +stopped to watch her. Frightened at his appearance, she arose and stood +waiting for him to pass, but he said sadly: + +"Your gods, my child, are but wood and stone, and cannot hear your +prayers. The one true God lives in Heaven, watching over you, and loving +you, and there is no other God but Him." + +Awed by his strange words, yet understanding them not, she gazed at him +in silence, and, moved by a sudden impulse, he laid his hand tenderly on +her head. + +"May the God of love and peace bring you at last to His kingdom," he +murmured, and was gone. + +Perhaps, had he known that this quiet girl was destined to be one of the +great women of the world, at whose slightest word, millions, even +hundreds of millions, of loyal subjects would bow the knee, he would +have spoken longer with her, but this he never knew. + +It was not until they had eaten with all the zest that hunger gives of +the provisions left them by the stranger, that the girl raised her eyes +to the calm blue heavens above her, now dotted with countless glowing +stars, and said, abruptly: + +"Father, the stranger told me, in the temple, about one true God, who is +alive, and who lives up there. What did he mean? I never heard before +of Him, and I have worshipped many gods." + +Niu Tsang nodded quickly at this confirmation of his suspicions. + +"It is as I thought," he said. "Although that traveller wore the +honorable costume of our country, and spoke to us in our own tongue, yet +methinks he was not one of us, but a barbarian from beyond the sea." + +The girl shuddered. + +"And he talked to me!" she cried in horror. "I never dreamed that he was +a foreign devil." + +"Be he what he may, he was most kind to us," her father reminded her, +"for his food was not polluted." + +"But what god is this that he worships?" she asked. + +"He spoke of the Jesus doctrine, of which, perhaps, he is a teacher," +her father answered in the tone of one who had finished the +conversation. + +"But who is Jesus?" the curious child persisted. + +"He is the god of barbarians and devils, Tuen," her father said sternly. +"He is not so wise as Confucius, nor so great as Buddha, else you would +have heard of him long ago." + +"And yet he called him a God of Love," she went on musingly, not heeding +her father's frown. "Is there a God of Love?" + +"No," Niu Tsang said shortly. "All the gods hate the children of men, +but because we offer prayers and incense they sometimes listen to us." + +Tuen said nothing more, but that night from her bed in the open court +she looked up at the silver river[2] winding among the golden stars, and +wondered what god it was who lived so far away you could only dimly see +his lamps shining through the blue, and she felt she would like to know +if all the gods really hated her, and if so, what she had done to make +them angry. Thus musing she fell asleep, and in the many strange events +that soon crowded into her little life and filled it to overflowing, she +forgot all about the stranger and his God. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The god of fate. + +[2] Chinese name for Milky Way. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Diseases may be cured, but not destiny." + + _Chinese Proverb._ + + +Many conflicting emotions have torn the heart of poor little Tuen since +she sat among the fallen idols in the lonely temple, and she has learned +that life may be a hateful thing, even to the young. After long weeks of +privation and hopelessness, after the bitter disappointment of finding +that even in the great city of Lu Chang food and clothing were not for +those who could not buy, she realized suddenly with that exaltation of +martyrdom that comes to strong women in all climes and in all ages, that +she must be the sacrifice offered for the happiness of her dear ones. + +So one day she went to the despairing Niu Tsang and said quietly: + +"Father, do not longer grieve. I have found a way out of all our +trouble." + +He looked at her in amazement, and she went on quickly: + +"I am young and strong, but, alas! a useless burden to you. I have +thought about it for long, and yesterday when I heard it said on the +street that many strings of cash are paid for girls like me, I knew I +could be the one to save you. If you can only sell me to some great +mandarin, the price will be enough to enable you to go back to the home +of our ancestors, there to pass your days in peace." + +"Never!" her father cried vehemently. "You do not know what you are +talking about. Sell you to be a slave, you in whose veins flows the +blood of the unconquerable Tartars, whose people have been mandarins and +rulers,--sell you to some despot master? By the memory of Confucius, +never!" + +"Do not answer me to-day, father," she said slowly, knowing that the +pangs of hunger which would come with the morrow were stronger than love +or pride or any other human feeling. "Only think it over, and remember +that I must work anyway, and a woman's lot is ever hard. 'T is so +ordained by the gods. Consider well before you refuse to procure comfort +for all by such simple means." + +Niu Tsang shook his head with stern determination, for although it is +not a Chinese custom to care for the girls of the household, in the long +days he and Tuen had journeyed together he had become deeply attached to +his wise little daughter, and he was most unwilling to part with her. +But he weighed well her words, and goaded on by cruel shameless hunger, +that remembers neither blood nor conscience, he at last consented to her +plan. + +"The iron hand of poverty crushes the spirit of the proudest," he +murmured sadly. + +It so happened that on the third morning after Tuen had talked with him, +the Viceroy of the province, seated in a sedan borne by eight +attendants, for the number of these chair-bearers is a sign of official +rank, came to the Ching-hwang-miau (City Guardian's Temple) to worship. +Now in front of this temple was always a numerous gathering, composed of +venders of different wares, idlers, and beggars, and among this throng +stood Niu Tsang and his family. Too proud to descend to the level of a +common beggar, and unable to find work, he now waited for a fitting +opportunity to dispose of Tuen, since that seemed the only means left by +which he could repair his fallen fortunes. As the Viceroy, alighting +from his chair, entered the portal, Tuen crept closer to her father and +whispered: "Offer me to him when he comes out. He is a great man, with +much money, and doubtless has many slaves." + +[Illustration: THE VICEROY AND NIU TSANG. Page 24.] + +A glow of hope kindled in the eyes of Niu, although he sighed heavily, +and leaving the mother and her baby at a little distance he took Tuen +and went up opposite the entrance. It seemed hours to the waiting girl, +so intense was her anxiety, before the Viceroy appeared, though in +reality his devotions were very short. When he saw that she and her +father barred the way to his sedan he made an imperious gesture for them +to stand aside, but Niu Tsang saluted him humbly, but did not move. +There was even a quiet dignity about him that did not escape the +Viceroy, as he said in a trembling voice: + +"I crave your forgiveness, oh illustrious sir, but I have a most +beautiful possession--all unworthy that I am--and as poverty presses +hard upon me I now offer it to you." + +"And what is it?" the Viceroy questioned impatiently, yet attracted by +something in the manner of the man before him. + +"Behold it," Niu answered, taking Tuen by the hand and drawing her from +behind him, where she had hitherto stood unnoticed. + +Her appearance it must be confessed was not attractive, for her loose +outer robe was soiled and frayed, and the petticoat hanging below it was +in tatters. Her face, which under other circumstances would doubtless +have been round and plump, was now pinched and worn, and her lips were +almost bloodless. A mass of uncombed hair hung to her waist, a faint +pink flush, born of excitement, burned through the olive of her cheeks, +and her little mouth quivered piteously as she waited with downcast eyes +the verdict of this august personage. + +"Beautiful, did you say?" the Viceroy questioned, with a sarcastic +inflection in his voice that stung the sensitive Tuen to the quick, and +caused her to raise her soft, solemn eyes to him with a pleading, +half-reproachful look, while the flush on her cheeks deepened to +crimson. + +"Umh--she is not ugly," he said with sudden condescension. "And now tell +me of her age, her home, and what she can do,--then will we talk of the +price." + +"She is no beggar maid," her father answered, lifting his head, "for I, +her father, belong to the literati in my own province, and her people +have ever been great ones. But alas! the wild rebellion swept through +our land, and we saw our home in ruins, our all destroyed. Starvation +must be our lot if we stayed there, so I started for Lu Chang, bringing +my family, hoping here to find work. But I have failed, and Tuen is now +my only hope. She is young and strong and fair, a valuable possession to +the one who buys her. She is also wise and good, of most amiable +disposition, and quick in learning woman's work, for her hands are deft +and her mind alert. Because such girls are rare and cannot be often +bought, the price for her is no petty sum," Niu concluded, anxious now +to drive a good bargain. + +After much haggling the amount was at last agreed upon, and Tuen +listening wondered that so many strings of cash should be paid for a +useless girl. "Far, far more than I am worth," she told herself with +deep humility. + +"Bring her to my yâmen[3] to-morrow at midday," the Viceroy said as he +got into his sedan, "and the money will then be paid you." + +Tuen gazed after him as one fascinated. To her excited imagination he +looked as stern and pitiless as the gods she had worshipped in her +far-away home, and the splendor of his appearance had awed her. Her +father was divided between grief at her fate, and the joy at the +thought of the great wealth that would be his on the morrow, for the sum +agreed upon was enough to make him comfortable the remainder of his life +in that land where necessities cost but little and luxuries are almost +unknown. + +The family of Niu Tsang spent that night in the open space in front of +the temple, and scarce had Tuen fallen asleep when she was awakened by a +great commotion. She heard loud cries in the street, mingled with the +incessant beating of drums and cymbals, and moving lights and grotesque +figures were all around her. Springing to her feet she uttered a +piercing shriek, for her first thought was that the Viceroy had come for +her. + +"Don't let him have me--don't let him have me," she screamed wildly. + +"Hush!" her father commanded. "Do you not see that this is the +procession of the Rain Dragons? The drought has been very long, and the +people try to please the gods, so that we may have cooling showers." + +Tuen rubbed her eyes, and slipping close to her mother watched eagerly +the strange gathering that now came in sight. In front was a surging +crowd, uttering cries of delight, and behind came a throng of men +bearing aloft huge, hideous dragons. The heads of these serpents were +made of thin paper with lights inside, and their eyes were red as fire, +while their wide-open mouths gaped hungrily. Their bodies were made of +semi-transparent cloth over hoops of bamboo, and men walked underneath +holding them high in the air with sticks which they so moved that the +dragons made their way along in undulating heaps, much to the delight of +the populace. But Tuen viewed it all very seriously. + +"Will the dragons let it rain now, father?" she inquired anxiously. + +"Oh, I suppose so," he answered carelessly. "They will if they are +ready to, and if they are not--well, it will still be dry. And now, +Tuen, you must go to sleep again, for the Viceroy will not want a +blinking, stupid girl. He will say that I cheated him." + +"Did you, father?" she questioned fearfully, but her father only +chuckled and said nothing, and poor Tuen had a new thought to torment +her. + +With all these things on her mind it was long before she could go to +sleep, and when her weary eyes could keep open no longer, she was +pursued in her dreams by a horrible dragon with yawning, cruel mouth, +and gleaming eyes, and when helplessly she sank down before this awful +object,--lo! it turned into the Viceroy. + +The dream was not reassuring, and when the morrow came she could not +forget it. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] The official residence of a Viceroy. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Long before the sun was up Tuen and her mother were huddled together, +talking in low tones about the wealth Niu would receive from the +Viceroy, and Tuen ever found herself planning what they would do when +they went back to their native town, and then she would suddenly +remember that she would not be with them, and a great lump would come up +into her throat and choke her. And it was small wonder that she felt she +would gladly starve with them rather than pay such a terrible price for +bread. + +All the morning they squatted forlornly before the temple, hungry and +desolate and sorrowful, and when at last Niu Tsang arose, and Tuen knew +that the awful moment when she must leave them forever had come, she +felt as if she should surely die. Her mother caressed her, crying in a +hopeless, patient way, but she managed to whisper encouragingly: + +"After all, you will be better off," and Tuen answered bravely: "All of +us will, I hope, be better off, mother. At least we shall not die of +hunger." + +"No, and nothing could be worse than that," her mother said with a +shudder, for she was even now weak and well-nigh exhausted. + +"You will never again want for food, mother," Tuen repeated, finding her +only consolation in this knowledge. "Never again be hungry, and after a +while my brother will grow up and marry a wife to wait on you. But +mother, mother, I will not be there, never, never, never," and Tuen +rocked herself to and fro and moaned. + +"It is true," her mother answered, "but to live in the house of a +Viceroy is not an unpleasant prospect, for it must be very splendid +there." Thus did these two poor ones try to comfort each other. + +"I will try to make the best of it, and maybe the gods will have pity on +me," Tuen finally said, and with a last embrace of her mother, a last, +long look at her baby brother, she followed her father, and she held her +head very high, and did not dare to look back at them, lest her courage +fail her. + +Niu Tsang was also grief-stricken and spoke but little as they made +their way through the narrow, crowded streets, where the throng ever +pressed and jostled in good-natured confusion. At last they stopped in +front of a high wall, more pretentious than any they had yet seen. Upon +the lintels of the door, which was cut in the centre of the wall, were +imposing boards with curious red letters upon them announcing the +literary rank of the owner, while from the eaves hung lanterns +inscribed with his name and rank. + +"It is the Viceroy's yâmen," her father said briefly. "Let us enter." + +The gate-keeper, nodding contemptuously to them as he noticed the +poverty of their appearance, allowed them to pass when Niu stated that +he had an appointment with the Viceroy, and as this outer door, upon +which was carved the protecting gods, closed behind them, Tuen felt that +she had in truth passed the gates of doom. Nevertheless as they entered +the small space within the doorway, guarded on each side by great stone +lions, she forced back the tears that almost blinded her, and looked +curiously at this ogre palace that was henceforth to be her home. To the +left was the shrine of the gods of the threshold, where a bowl of ashes +showed that incense sticks had lately burned, and on the right, behind +bright red boards ornamented with gilt lettering, were several sedan +chairs. As they went behind the screen that separated this entranceway +from the inner buildings they found themselves in a paved court where +flowers bloomed in fancy jars, and rows of ornamental shrubbery outlined +the walk. Here they were met by a porter, more supercilious in manner +than the gate-keeper, and it was only after a prolonged argument, for he +liked not to admit such unprepossessing individuals, that he finally +conducted them to the main hall, where the Viceroy received his guests +and transacted all business. At one end of this apartment was an altar +dedicated to the household spirits, and upon it were incense vases and +tall candlesticks of wrought brass in which red wax candles were +burning, while on the wall hung gay banners and scrolls of white satin, +inscribed with the maxims of Confucius. Small tables were arranged +around the room, with two chairs at each one, where tea and tobacco +were served to callers, and at the end of the hall near the altar was a +square couch filled with silken pillows, and upon this the magistrate +half reclined, book in hand. He was clad in a flowing blue tunic, over +which were scattered crimson flowers, and upon the breast was +embroidered a great golden lily, its centre a lustrous pearl. His loose +pantaloons were met below the knees by stockings of white silk, and his +thick-soled shoes were made of yellow silk. Upon his head was a red +satin cap, adorned at the top with a crimson button, an insignia of his +high rank, while from the silken girdle around his waist hung his +tobacco pouch, pipe case, bag for flint and steel, and two purses of +loosely braided tinsel cord, in which huge gold watches were plainly +visible. His wide sleeves were much longer than his arms, and shaped +like a horseshoe at the hand, and his girdle was fastened with a clasp +of highly polished jade. Before him was a low stand of ebony, upon +which were writing materials, consisting of a pencil made of soft, fine +hair, delicately pointed at the end, a bit of India ink, and a small +stone where it could be rubbed smooth. + +Tuen had a confused idea of these surroundings, although her eyes seemed +fixed upon the tiled floor, and her heart was beating so loudly that she +could but wonder if the Viceroy heard it. + +"Ah, you have come," he said, hardly looking up from the book he was +reading, and taking no notice of Niu Tsang's polite greetings. "'Tis to +be hoped the girl will prove not a mere idle consumer of rice, for I +have paid a good price for her." + +"Not so much as she is worth," her father replied quickly. "She is +wonderfully smart, considering that she had the misfortune to be born a +female." + +"Girls are always useless," the Viceroy answered, pursing up his lips +knowingly "and the gods in punishment send us many." + +"It is indeed so," Niu readily agreed. "They are a crop that never +fails. The land teems with them, and there seems no prospect of +decrease." + +"And yet I have burdened myself with another," the Viceroy said +regretfully. + +"If your illustrious highness," Niu commenced, when the Viceroy +interrupted him. + +"The trade is made," he said shortly. "It only remains for the coin to +be counted." + +Then he signed for a servant to approach. + +"Take the girl to Wang," he commanded. + +Tuen uttered a little gasp but did not move, and her father, seeing her +agitation, said tenderly: + +"Go, my daughter, and may all the gods protect you." + +Tuen followed the attendant, her form shaking with suppressed sobs, and +he led the way from the main hall into a second court, larger and more +beautiful than the first. A gnarled and twisted evergreen, simulating a +canopy, stood in the centre of this court, and underneath its thick +branches was a little pool, encircled by moss-covered rocks, and filled +with brilliant gold-fish. The walk was formed of many-colored pebbles, +laid in unique designs, but Tuen did not have time to decipher them for +she was hurried on into a luxurious apartment, where bright-colored +lanterns of horn and oiled silk, decorated with long red tassels, hung +from the joists, and on the walls were pen-and-ink sketches of +landscapes, and paper panels bearing the ornamental autographs of +friends--for with the Chinese, fine writing is a great accomplishment. +The bedstead was of ebony, carved in fruits and flowers, and from the +tester hung draperies of flowered silk. Beside it was a massive chair +of the same costly wood, the arms ending in dragon's claws; and rich +porcelain vases, taller than Tuen, stood upon the floor, while in one +corner was a handsome pearl-inlaid bookcase. Tuen had now dried her eyes +and was looking in wondering amazement at this fairy-land she had +entered, and as they went out through the leaf-shaped door, hung with +silken curtains, and through a narrow corridor lighted by means of a +window made of small panes of oyster-shell, she uttered an exclamation +of delight at the beautiful scene before her. They were now in a +spacious court, where lilies, peonies, geraniums, and many flowers she +had never seen before bloomed in odd-shaped jardinières. In the centre +was a miniature lake where the rich green leaves of the lotus lay upon +the still water, and here and there a pink bud peeped out from its cool +hiding-place. Shrubs cut in the shape of inviting benches or cosy +chairs invited the weary to rest, while the light fell dimly through a +roof of oyster-shells upon this lovely spot. A polished stone table +stood on the bank of the lake, with chairs around it--for here the +Viceroy often came to drink his tea--and hanging from the branches of +trees were cages of chirping goldfinch. Tuen could but wish she might +stay here a little while, but her guide was anxious to be rid of her and +went quickly on. They now entered another bedroom, not less magnificent +than the one she had lately seen, where the air was heavy with the +perfume of incense that burned in a copper tripod, and passing out at a +door, this time shaped like an urn, she was led through many other +corridors and apartments, until at last they came to the last court of +all, where, surrounded by earthen tubs and buckets, two women were +washing clothes, chattering constantly the while. A little apart from +them stood an elderly woman with a shrewd, pleasant face, who seemed to +be overlooking the others. + +"The Viceroy sent her to you," the servant who was with Tuen said to the +older woman, pointing with one finger to the shrinking girl behind him. + +At his words the women looked up from their work with evident curiosity, +for there was but little break in the monotony of their lives, and this +newcomer was therefore interesting. The one to whom he spoke came +forward that she might better examine her charge. + +"Where did he get her?" she inquired, regarding Tuen with something like +disfavor in her keen eyes. + +"Bought her," was the man's laconic answer. "From the ragman it +appears," he also volunteered; and then with a shrug of his shoulders he +went away. + +"He was cheated if he paid much. Don't you say so, Wang?" one of the +women said with a laugh that was not unkind. + +A feeling of such utter, overpowering loneliness swept over Tuen as she +stood undergoing their scrutiny that all at once she slipped down on the +muddy ground and fell to weeping violently. + +[Illustration: TUEN AND WANG. Page 43.] + +"A cry-baby," one of them muttered contemptuously, returning to her +work. + +"Poor child," the one called Wang murmured, perhaps remembering the day +when she had been bought by the Viceroy; and she went over to the +prostrate figure. + +"O come, there's nothing to cry about," she said pleasantly. "You are in +great good-fortune to have such an illustrious and wealthy gentleman as +the Viceroy to buy you. It's not every girl has such a master." + +"No indeed," replied the younger of the other two women. "Why he never +beats us at all." + +Encouraged by these cheerful remarks Tuen's sobs grew less, and she +surreptitiously dried her eyes on the skirt of her jacket. + +"You look like a lazy thing," the woman who had called her a cry-baby, +said spitefully. "Get up from there and draw me a bucket of water." + +"You must not scold the child, Zau," Wang interposed. "She is only a bit +homesick, now." + +Zau muttered something to herself as Tuen took the bucket and went over +to the middle of the court, where a stone with a small hole in the top +covered the well. + +While she was at her task the women whispered among themselves and +nodded toward her, but when she returned Wang only said: + +"Come with me and I will get you some better clothes. Then I will take +you to see the wife of the Viceroy." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +On the day that Tuen arrived at the yâmen, the wife of the Viceroy came +out into the court to take her airing, and because her poor little feet +were so small they would not bear her weight, a maid walked on each side +to support her. Even then she tottered helplessly, and was glad to sit +down in a chair beside the lily pool. She was low and plump, with a +wealth of glossy black hair arranged high on her head, and adorned with +many fancy pins, while across her forehead was a pointed band +embroidered in gold and pearls, getting gradually narrower toward the +back, where it was fastened with a jewelled brooch. Her sloping +eyebrows, shaped like a crescent moon, were heavily pencilled, her +olive complexion was lightened by a generous supply of powder, and her +cheeks and lips and even her little round chin had been touched with +vermilion. The costume she wore was not less striking than was her +appearance, consisting of a long outer robe of pink crêpe, embroidered +in blue and red flowers with golden centres, with here and there a spray +of green leaves, and on her breast was the yellow lily, the same as the +one the Viceroy wore. From beneath this robe came a plaited petticoat of +pale green silk, and with every step the folds opened and closed, +showing the pink lining. Her chubby feet were encased in diminutive +shoes of red satin, heavily worked in gilt thread, from her ears hung +two pairs of long, swinging ear-rings, and upon her arms were gold and +silver bracelets, from one of which hung an amulet of jade to ward off +evil spirits. The long sleeves of her tunic covered her hands, for in +China it is immodest for a woman to expose her hands or wrists, or any +part of her body. + +Despite the gorgeousness of her apparel there was nothing haughty in the +bearing of this great lady, and although her countenance was destitute +of that intellectuality that brightens the faces of the women of the +western world, her expression was one of extreme amiability. + +"Can you tell me nothing that will interest me? Have you not some news +of what goes on in the city?" she asked, turning to one of the maids; +but hardly had she finished speaking when Wang appeared, followed by the +timid Tuen. + +"Ah, here is the little slave of whom I have heard!" she exclaimed, +seeing their approach. "Bring her here, Wang." + +Tuen made her salutations humbly, and waited with hands clasped in front +of her for the verdict of her new mistress. Thanks to the kindly +ministrations of Wang, her face was now clean, her hair neatly braided, +and her old worn-out garments replaced by new ones. + +The Viceroy's lady examined her critically, even approvingly, as she +said: "I am glad she has such big feet. She can the better work. Only +ladies of high rank should bind their feet--it is foolishness in +servants." + +Tuen looked from her own brown, shapely feet to the clumsy ones of her +mistress, and was silent, though it must be confessed she thought the +Viceroy's wife had the very loveliest feet she had ever seen. + +"Can you do anything?" the lady next questioned; and Tuen managed to +stammer that she knew how to embroider, and to cook some dishes that +were esteemed dainties in the province of Hunan, from whence she came. +But her new mistress seemed astonished at the enumeration of these +accomplishments, and said coldly. + +"We have those who are well trained to do such work for us. If you are +quick to learn, Wang will teach you other things, and if you are stupid +and bad,"--here she frowned and shook her head, "why, we will sell you +again." + +"Sell who again?" cried a shrill voice, and Tuen jumped and looked +hastily behind her to see from whence it came. + +The Viceroy's wife, with her maids supporting her, quickly rose to her +feet, and with many low bows offered the vacant chair to an old, +withered woman, most magnificently attired, who emerged from one of the +corridors. This elderly female scorned the proffered seat, and glared +irately around her. + +"Who is this creature?" she screamed, pointing her long, bony finger at +Tuen, who now became conscious of a wild desire to fly. + +"It is a slave my husband has bought to-day, mother," the Viceroy's +lady said in a humble, almost pleading voice. + +"Your husband has bought!" exclaimed the old lady in a tone of withering +scorn. "You mean my son has bought, do you not? And how dare you speak +of selling her? You! Umh! I will box your ears if I hear any more such +saucy talk." + +"Indeed, indeed I did not mean to be disrespectful to your worshipful +highness," the wife of the Viceroy murmured. But the mother-in-law was +not so readily appeased. + +"You, who must worship me while I am alive, and when I am dead do homage +before my tablet, to sit and tell me what you will do with mine and my +son's possessions! The impudence of it! You need a good beating right +now," and she glared fiercely at the trembling wife. "As for that girl," +nodding toward Tuen, "I like her looks, and if it pleases me I will take +her for my maid." + +This prospect was far from pleasing to the unhappy little slave girl, +but having delivered this threat the autocrat of the household hobbled +away, still scolding beneath her breath. No wonder that the wife of the +Viceroy drew a long sigh of relief as she saw the figure of her +mother-in-law disappear, and she quite complacently settled herself in +her chair and smoothed out the folds of her robe as if nothing had +happened. Such scenes as these were of frequent occurrence in this +aristocratic yâmen, for by the laws of the land the son's wife must be +subject to his parents, and yield them obedience in all things. If she +failed in this, her life became a burden dreadful to be borne, for a +Chinese mother-in-law is often a thing of terror, and besides it was a +satisfactory ground for divorce for the husband to say that his wife was +not obedient to his mother. The reign of the mother-in-law thus became a +thing not curable, and therefore to be endured with all the patience +possible under the circumstances. The wife of the Viceroy possessed a +large supply of this valuable article,--patience--and bore in silence +the many taunts of her mother-in-law; and now with her serenity +unruffled she again addressed Tuen. + +"You spoke of the province of Hunan. That must be a long way from here, +as I never heard of it before." + +"It _is_ very far," Tuen answered, thinking of the weary weeks they had +journeyed through the country. Then she added proudly: + +"My father is even now returning there, but I shall never go back." + +"Of course not," her mistress replied. "Why should you, when you have +food and clothes here? Is not that enough?" + +Tuen was saved the necessity of a reply, for the Viceroy now appeared on +the scene fanning himself violently with a great gauze fan. For a moment +he did not recognize Tuen, so marked was the change in her appearance, +and he inquired abruptly, not noticing the others: + +"What is your name?" + +"Tuen, oh great and honored sir," she replied in a trembling voice, +bowing to the ground, for she stood in deep awe of this powerful +magistrate. + +"She is the slave you bought this morning," Wang interposed, and at this +the Viceroy pursed up his lips in astonishment. Again he looked at Tuen +closely, then turning to his wife said: + +"She is young, and has an intelligent look. I am glad I bought her, for +there is something in her manner I like, and I am sure she will be +useful." + +"Her face belies her," his lady put in, "for she seems very stupid." + +"At any rate she isn't ugly," he rejoined, and at this remark his wife +threw back her head quickly, and darted an angry glance at Tuen. + +"I don't see any beauty," she replied coldly. "Ugh, how scrawny she +is!" with a satisfied glance at her own plump person. + +"Take her away," he said shortly to Wang, then addressed his wife in the +same tones of displeasure. + +"As for you, come with me to the Hall of my Ancestors to worship," and +he led the way to a small building, shaped like a summer-house, standing +at the far end of the court. The floor of this little edifice was of +tiling, and the wood-work was fancifully carved and decorated, while +many lanterns hung within. At the rear was an altar of costly jade, +before which incense was now burning, and upon it stood five wooden +tablets about twelve inches long and three broad, bearing the name and +the date of death of his ancestors. The Viceroy and his wife prostrated +themselves before this altar, knocking their heads nine times upon the +floor, as their lips moved in prayer. These rites finished, he burned a +quantity of gilt paper in the bowl placed before the tablets for that +purpose, and returned with his wife to the court, where tea was served. +As he sipped this invigorating beverage, the Viceroy dismissed the +servants, and when alone with his wife returned to the former topic of +conversation. + +"The girl I have bought is no common creature," he informed her, "but of +good parentage. I desire peace in my family, and for that reason I shall +take no other wives, but see to it that this Tuen is treated well. She +might be taught to wait upon you." + +"I have maids enough," she answered, "and I do not need this one. Let +her work with the other kitchen slaves; that is the place for her." For +she had not yet forgiven him for saying that Tuen was not ugly. + +"Very well," he replied indifferently. "But she looked like a smart +girl." + +"She is but a stupid child yet," his wife said, now somewhat +conciliated. "She may improve when she has lived with us awhile, but she +has much to learn." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The next morning Tuen commenced her simple round of duties, in which she +was instructed by the women of the inner court. At first her work was +only to draw water, help with the washing and do the drudgery, and her +lot was often hard, but it did not escape the watchful Wang that she was +quick and willing, so one day she said to her: + +"Tuen, there is much spinning to be done, and if your fingers are very +nimble I will teach you to manage the wheel. But mind you, if you are +all thumbs you will have to stay where you are." + +So that was the way it came about that Tuen was soon seated at the +little spinning-wheel, with its three spindles, pulling out +interminable lengths of cotton thread from the fleecy rolls in her hand, +and above the soft, insistent buzzing of the wheel she could hear the +voices of the others as they talked among themselves. She listened +attentively to all they said, as she worked, with both feet, the treadle +of her singing wheel, and her face was flushed with pride at the +importance of her new position. She sat silent, never once raising her +eyes from her work, but in all the Flowery Kingdom there was not that +day a prouder girl, and she felt so grateful to Wang that when dark +came, and she had to put up her work, she could not help from giving her +a good hug. + +"I like this so much better than the kitchen labor," she whispered, "and +I intend to work harder than I ever did in all my life. Only let me stay +here, dear Wang." + +And when Wang promised, she went to sleep so happy. + +Thus the weeks went by, and Tuen's face grew full, and her arms round +and plump, and she forgot all about what it was to be hungry, and was +quite satisfied. She still often thought about her dear ones, but she no +longer wept to see them as she had once done, and in place of crying +because she would never live with them again, she commenced to think of +them as so rich and fine in their own home, and all because of her. + +Once as they all sat spinning, a young woman said dolefully: + +"Oh how I wish I had little feet! Every one knows that I am but a common +laborer as soon as they see me coming." + +"The Viceroy's wife has such pretty ones," Wang answered. "They are not +more than two inches long." + +"Such feet are not for the poor like us," sighed the first speaker. +"Why, mine must be over ten inches long. I don't suppose any one will +ever marry me." + +"Just look what long ones Tuen has and be consoled," another said +laughingly. "Surely, the child's growth has been in one direction only." + +"She had better bind a piece of cloth tight around them every night, so +they wont grow while she is asleep," someone suggested. + +"I don't want little feet," Tuen answered, for the first time taking +part in the conversation. "I am a Tartar, and they never bind their +feet. My mother told me so." + +"What stupidity!" said the woman nearest Tuen contemptuously. + +"No it is not stupidity," the girl replied firmly. "My father was a very +learned man--he belonged to the literati--" looking proudly around her +to see the effect of this announcement, "and he said the custom of +binding the feet became the fashion because an Empress was once born +with club feet, and then all the officers of the court wrapped up their +daughters so that the poor Empress would not feel bad when she looked at +her own. + +"Your father must be very smart to tell you such a likely tale as that," +one of her companions retorted sarcastically. "It's a wonder he did not +become a story-teller upon the street, for surely all would have flocked +to listen to him." + +"I once heard the Viceroy tell the mistress that the men of the country +originated the idea of binding the women's feet, so they would not go +gadding about," Wang interposed. "It truly is a good way to keep them at +home." + +"I bound the feet of my little girl," said one of the women, "and oh, +how she did cry. But I didn't mind that, for I was determined that when +she grew up she should have a husband, and no man wants a woman with big +feet. And it's better never to be born than to be born a girl, any way, +and it's also better to have never been born than not to have a +husband. She would not sleep at night, but lay sobbing that they hurt +her so, and begging me to take the bandage off. Of course I did not +listen to her, and had she lived her feet would have been as small +perhaps as those of the Viceroy's wife; but when she died every one said +I ought to be glad to get rid of a girl, and that there would be one +mouth less to feed." + +"Were you glad?" asked Tuen. + +The woman shook her head. + +"No," she said. "I loved her if she was a girl." + +"My father and my mother both loved me," Tuen told them with a sigh, +"and they would not have sold me if they had not been hungry. Then they +did not want to do it, but I made them." + +"And you are a lot better off," Wang said. + +"I would have rather been poor all my life and stayed with them," was +Tuen's answer. + +"She is a strange child," one of them whispered to her neighbor. "She +says such very stupid things." + +"Talking of story-tellers," cried one of them, "reminds me that once on +the Festival of the Dead as I went to the hills to worship at the grave +of my husband's ancestors, I heard a man tell such a wonderful story. If +I had had any cash I would have given it to him. It was all about a +great lady whose husband pretended to be dead and afterwards came back +to life and cut her head off. He said he knew a great many delightful +tales that he had read in books, and I would have loved to listen to him +all day, but my husband said a woman could not understand such things." + +"Oh I would love to read," Tuen breathed eagerly, and the women laughed +at this speech and said she was truly foolish. Tuen blushed and hung +her head, and after this she was silent. + + * * * * * * * + +A year had passed since Tuen came to live at the Viceroy's yâmen, and in +that time she had grown taller, fairer, and now was budding into +womanhood, or at least so it was considered in that land, where girls of +twelve years old are thought mature enough to marry. She had become a +great favorite with every one in the palace on account of her amiable +disposition and kindness to every one, and even the Viceroy's wife had +forgotten her former prejudice and took a kindly interest in her. Wang, +seeing that her fingers were nimble and her hand steady, had long ago +promoted her to a place before the embroidery frame, and was delighted +to see how skilful the girl was with the needle. She taught Tuen to +embroider on delicate silks and crêpes the most beautiful flowers in +nature's garden, and many strange creeping things that were said to +live at the bottom of the sea and turn yellow if the sun shone on them, +so they must always be worked in glittering gilt thread, bright as the +sunshine. And such charming colors as she day by day painted in with her +needle! No wonder that finally she made many garments for little +Tung-li, the only child of the proud Viceroy, and gorgeous robes they +were to behold. At last Wang's pride in her pupil caused her to suggest +that Tuen should make a tunic for the Viceroy as a present on the coming +New Year, for it is the Chinese custom to exchange gifts at that season. +So Tuen went to work on a piece of lustrous purple satin, and scattered +over it half-open pink buds, and crimson blossoms, and yellow flowers +strung together with gold thread, and upon the breast of it she worked +the golden lily. Very proud was she of her handiwork when the last +stitch had been taken and she held it up before Wang's admiring gaze, +and truly it was a robe fit to be worn by the Emperor himself. + +"How can I ever repay you, dear Wang," Tuen cried, "for teaching me to +do this? If it only brings me favor with the Viceroy I shall be so +happy!" + +And Wang, not understanding the secret Tuen had locked within her heart, +answered half laughing, but perhaps with a grain of seriousness under +the jest: + +"By having me for your maid, little one, when you become a great lady." + +"Indeed, indeed I will," the girl answered heartily, "and for even more +than my maid. You shall be my friend, my mother." + +And this promise she did not forget. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +One who has never been in China on New Year's Day cannot understand the +indescribable joy with which the teeming population of this vast Empire +lays aside its never-finished work, and clad in new garments, goes out +to welcome the incoming year. Deprived of the seventh day of rest, with +no holidays, feast days, or fast days, to take them away from the +monotony of toil for a little breathing space, it is not to be wondered +at that, when this festive season comes, and for the first and last time +during the year all shops are closed, all business stopped, the whole +country seems mad with delight. Weeks before the arrival of this great +day the streets are filled with little stands where bright colored +papers, flowers, incense, candles, and all the various articles suitable +to the occasion, are sold. Then, too, this is the time for the universal +washing of persons and things, and although the land is not noted for +cleanliness, during this festival dirt is in disfavor. + +At the residence of the Viceroy everything presented a gala appearance. +After cleaning and scrubbing in every available place, the house had +been purified by prayers and ceremonies and incense, and when New Year's +eve came nothing was lacking save the final decorations. Without the +populace thronged the streets, and their loud shouts and beating of +gongs and drums, and the popping of innumerable fire-crackers made a +deafening din. People stood at their gateways busily employed in pasting +strips of red paper entreating the five blessings, or bearing +congratulatory mottoes, upon the lintels of their doors, and from every +conceivable place fluttered narrow papers bearing the word _Fuh_ +(happiness). + +Tuen was in a state of pleasurable excitement as she ran about the yâmen +giving a touch here and there to the preparations, for on New Year's +night no one could think of sleeping. The shrine of the household gods +had been decorated with great porcelain vases filled with the dainty +blossoms of the narcissus, and enormous red candles, gaily painted, +burned there; in the corridors hung scrolls of silk and satin upon which +were inscribed maxims and propitiatory sentences, and all the various +apartments were garnished with fruits and flowers, while upon the walls +were garlands of _kin hwa_, or golden flowers, made of tinselled brass +and looped with long streamers of red and gold paper. + +Tuen had taken a perfumed bath in in which had been steeped the leaves +of the fragrant hoang py, and arrayed herself in her new apparel, the +gift of the Viceroy to all his servants. As she listened to the +never-ending popping of the fire-crackers, and the bursting of the +Roman-candles and sky-rockets, her eyes fairly shone, and her heart +fluttered joyously. Then she remembered the gift she had made for the +Viceroy, and she fell to wondering what he would think of it. Already +she had taken it to his wife to give to him, and she amused herself by +trying to think of the words he would say when first he beheld it. He +was going to the temple early in the morning to worship--that she knew. +Would he wear it there? Would he be pleased? Would he speak to her? Or +would he not appreciate the many weeks she had toiled over it, putting +in the most exquisite touches, and the daintiest stitches, and blending +shade in shade with perfect art, and merely consider it the work of a +slave, who did it because she was ordered? This thought was bitter, for +her work had been sweetened, it is true, by her grateful remembrance of +his kindness to her, but still she had another plan in her active little +brain, and if he did not marvel at the exceeding beauty of the garment, +and speak to her in person of her skilful needle-work, she would never +again have a chance to beg of him this one great favor. And she wanted +it so very much that she could never rest satisfied until she had prayed +him to grant it. She seemed doomed to disappointment, for in the early +dawn of the new-born year the Viceroy, clad in gorgeous costume, and +wearing, it is true, the tunic Tuen had made him, started to the temple, +carrying with him the little Tung-li, whose fifth birthday he this day +celebrated. Tuen heard from Wang that he had gone but he sent her no +message, and hope died in her breast. + +"He thought not of the slave girl who wrought it," she murmured sadly +to Wang. "He knew that you gave me the material and told me to make it, +and he don't think anything of it." And that worthy domestic was also +greatly cast down, for she wanted to see Tuen advance in her master's +favor, and had contrived many things for that very end. + +Meanwhile the sedan containing the Viceroy was being rapidly borne +through the street, while behind came another chair containing his +little heir. It looked as if the weary, stolid, poorly clad people that +usually thronged the thoroughfare, had in the past night been touched by +the wand of a genius, and lo! what a wonderful transformation there was +this morning. Each one now was clad in new garments, and the faces of +all were wreathed in smiles, and every one was happy. The gate-ways, +covered with red and gold paper, presented a most picturesque +appearance, although alas! upon many was the fatal blue strip, telling +the passers by that within the past year death had invaded that +household. Upon stalls, and baskets, and barrels, and in every nook and +corner prayers to the different gods were pasted; actors and jugglers +entertained those who would stop to look at them, and reaped a plentiful +harvest of coins; the brilliantly costumed crowd moved along in the soft +morning light like the figures in a kaleidoscope, and when friend met +friend what a struggle there was to see who should excel in politeness, +and bow most humbly, while the cordial greeting: "_Kungli! Kungli!_" (I +wish you joy! I wish you joy!) was heard on every side. Reaching the +temple the Viceroy conducted his son within, and behind them came +servants bearing gilt and silver paper, printed prayers, and bowls +containing rice, fruits, meats, vegetables, and libations. The priests, +arrayed in blue and yellow robes, stopped their prostrations when they +saw this distinguished party approaching, and one, who was the leader, +stepped forward, and commenced to chant a prayer consisting of frequent +repetitions, in a high, nasal voice, the attendants joining in the +chorus, and beating with much vehemence upon the drums and gongs. All +now bowed before the great bronze image of the god they worshipped, the +mother god, as she was called, the priests making many genuflections. + +Tung-li looked gravely at these elaborate ceremonies, and quite forgot +to say the prayer he had been taught, but perhaps that did not matter. +Then the priests arose to their feet, and, still chanting, one of them +went out at the side door of the temple and returned carrying a live +cock in his hand, while behind him came another priest rolling a small +barrel open at both ends. The voices of the priests who had remained now +rose higher and higher, and amid the clash of gongs and cymbals, the +rolling of drums, and the ringing of bells, the cock was several times +passed through the open barrel. Thus did the priests entreat the gods +that Tung-li might go through life and escape its dangers and trials, +even as the cock had passed through the barrel and received no hurt. +This done, amid the burning of prayers and papers and incense, the +offering of the provisions brought, and the din of musical instruments, +the Viceroy retired from the temple, well satisfied with his morning's +devotions. + +Poor Tung-li was so tired that he went fast asleep on the way home, and +never even heard the fire-crackers that were popping all around him, nor +the glad shouts of the boys who played on the streets, and pitied him +because he was rich and must be shut up in a sedan. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +"The Viceroy has sent for you," was the message that caused Tuen to leap +to her feet with a cry of joy. + +"He has returned from the temple and is in the audience hall, where he +has been receiving calls from all the high authorities of the city. Now +he is alone, and wishes to speak with you," the servant further +volunteered. Tuen did not wait to hear more, but hastened to obey the +summons, though she paused outside of the Viceroy's door for a few +minutes in order to calm herself, for she was quite breathless. Then she +slipped in, and saw him sitting before a table, wearing the superb tunic +she had made, and clad in robes of more gorgeous splendor than she had +ever seen him wear. "_Kungli! Kungli!_ Oh, great and glorious one!" she +murmured low, saluting him, and then with a proud flush upon her face +she listened to his words of praise. + +Now it so happened that on this auspicious occasion the Viceroy was in a +most gracious mood. He had received many magnificent offerings from his +people, a bevy of his friends had called to wish him happiness, and said +many flattering things. On the table before him was a great heap of +large red cards containing good wishes for his continued prosperity, and +the Viceroy felt that he had just cause to feel satisfied, for surely he +was favored by the gods. When he had complimented Tuen upon the beauty +of her needle-work, not forgetting to praise her faithfulness and her +industry, he added kindly: + +"What would you like me to give you, as a reward for your work, Tuen?" +She made no answer, for although she had expected this question, and +had long ago decided upon the very words she would say in reply, now +that the time had come her lips were dumb. + +"Speak! What is it?" he insisted, but still she hesitated. + +He looked at her half-impatiently, and then he saw her round, rosy face, +her lustrous, pleading eyes, and her trembling little mouth, and, his +humor changing, he smiled encouragingly. + +Tuen, seeing this, threw herself at his feet and cried out impetuously: + +"O wisest and best among men, I would like to learn to read." + +[Illustration: "I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN TO READ." Page 78.] + +"What?" he ejaculated so sharply that her new-found courage instantly +deserted her, and she hid her face, and wondered at her own audacity. + +In truth the Viceroy was not so much displeased as he was astonished, +for he had never dreamed of such a strange request, and could hardly +believe his ears. + +"You, a girl, learn to read!" he finally exclaimed contemptuously. "What +nonsense! You couldn't learn if you tried. You haven't sense enough." + +"Indeed, I think I have," she said in a tearful voice, "and I do so want +to know about things." + +"There is no one to teach you," he answered shortly. "Go back to your +sewing, your gossip among the women, and know that it was for that you +were made, else had you been born a man." + +"I can't help what I was born," she sobbed. "The gods made me a woman, +and I just have to make the best of it." + +"Umph!" the magistrate grunted, watching her keenly from beneath his +drooping lids, and something told Tuen that her reply had pleased him, +so now she arose to her feet, and entreated softly: + +"Be not angry with Tuen. Remember you told her to make her wish known +to you, and this was the one, the only desire of her heart. Everything +else that she could want you have given her." + +"Your request has been most strange," he replied, somewhat mollified; +and noticing this difference in his tone she persisted. + +"If the master is great the servant should also aspire, that he may be +worthy to serve such a master. (For this was a speech she had heard her +father make, and had remembered.) Is not that true, O Wise ruler of the +province of Kiangsi?" + +"Truly for a woman she has some wit," he told himself; and after +considering a moment he said to her: + +"Answer me three questions, and if your words are wise your request +shall be granted." + +"I will try," she replied quietly, but she grew very pale. + +"Well, first, why do you wish to learn to read?" he inquired, assuming +a judicial air, and Tuen felt that he was laughing at her, but that +knowledge only made her the more determined to gain her point. + +"That I may be wise, and therefore good, and being both of these the +better able to serve the Viceroy," she answered with a low bow. + +He nodded his head approvingly. + +"I would let all of my servants learn if they would make that use of +it," he said. "For one that knows nothing your answer is not altogether +foolish. Now tell me what gods are the most to be feared?" + +"It would seem to me--perhaps because I am a woman--that it is the +household gods who are the most to be dreaded," she said hesitatingly. + +"Why?" he questioned. + +"Because both man and woman must needs live in the house, and if peace +and prosperity reign there they will have happiness. If not, all is +confusion and terror." + +But as she spoke she watched him fearfully, as if half afraid he would +be offended. + +But he answered: "Your reason is good, for peace in the house is indeed +the greatest blessing. Now one more question and I am done. Of all +living creatures which would you like to be?" + +"A man, Oh, learned sir," she said promptly, "since he alone of all +creatures has been given wisdom. And if further choice were given me I +would like to be the Viceroy of Kiangsi, since he is the wisest and best +of men." + +"Well said, well said," he exclaimed; for, like some other great ones of +whom we have heard, he was not averse to flattery. And thus on him did +Tuen use some of that diplomacy for which she one day would be +celebrated. + +"You have spoken wisely," he continued, "and if there can be found in +Lu Chang one who will teach you, by the gods you shall learn to read. I, +the Viceroy, have said it." + +Uttering many profuse thanks Tuen prostrated herself before him, for in +this land where females were ofttimes drowned like kittens at their +birth, or if allowed to live, despised and beaten, sold as mere +chattels, or even killed if disobedient to the husband's parents, the +patience of the Viceroy was indeed marvellous, and the permission she +had wrested from him was much to be wondered at. + +As soon as she had left his presence she ran to find Wang, and throwing +herself in the arms of this faithful friend she sobbed: + +"Oh, Wang, Wang, I am to be taught to read. The Viceroy has said it." + +"Taught to read?" Wang repeated blankly. + +"Yes, to read," Tuen cried. "I begged it of him, and at first he would +not, and then he finally consented, and oh, Wang, I feel as if I should +die for joy." + +"I am sure I don't know what you want to read for," said the puzzled +Wang, "but I do know that there is not another master in all China who +would have granted such a favor to a slave. You are a lucky girl to have +been bought by him, for he is the kindest man in the land. Any one else +would have beaten you for asking such a thing. You had better pray to +the gods every day that you shall always belong to him." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +By the time the festival of Pai-shan came--the day when all go to +worship at the graves of their ancestors--Tuen had already commenced to +struggle with the queer, sprawling hieroglyphics that fill the Chinese +books, and she was so proud and happy that she could think of nothing +else. The Viceroy was going in state to honor his forefathers, riding in +his sedan, and followed by a long retinue of servants, and Tuen, Wang +and Ta-ta had been allowed, as a special favor, to join this procession. +As they left the yâmen Tuen was telling them of the wonderful characters +she was trying to understand, and of the delight of learning about them, +and Ta-ta laughed good-naturedly. + +"It was very silly of you to beg such a favor of the Viceroy," she +said. "Who ever heard of a woman who could read, or who even wanted to? +Why did you not ask him for a silk dress, or for a pair of gold +ear-rings? That would have been much more sensible." + +"I didn't want anything in the world but to be learned like a man," Tuen +announced, "and I will be too, even if I am a woman"; and she set her +lips firmly together. + +"I never knew of a girl being allowed to study before," Wang said. "The +Viceroy is truly a wonderful man." + +"Women are not born to be happy any where," Ta-ta remarked. "Tuen will +find that out some day." + +"Well, the consolation is that we don't have to be women always," Wang +said philosophically. "Buddha said that we who, while on earth, were +obedient to our husband and his relatives, would some day come back to +earth a man. That is something to look forward to. Yesterday I went to +the temple and carried the money I had saved and gave it to the priest, +that he might pay the toll for me at the bridge that leads to the +spirit-land; and I also gave him the fee for the ferryman, and a lot of +cash for that greedy one that rows the dragon-boat across the lake of +blood. Now I have nothing to fear." + +"No, you can kill yourself any day," Ta-ta whispered enviously. + +While they talked they were making their way through the babbling throng +that filled the streets, and as they were but seldom allowed to leave +the Viceroy's residence they were looking about them with the keenest +pleasure. Hanging from the low tiled roofs of the houses were branches +of willow, the mourning tree of the dead, and a vast concourse of people +in holiday attire were either going or returning from the "worship at +the hills"; for on this day all the population steal a few hours from +the daily routine of drudgery, and go to render homage to the spirits of +their dead. Their gods were shadowy and unreal, perhaps had no existence +save in the imagination of the priests, but their own dear ones they +knew lived and went away. Why might not their souls, wandering in the +unknown, look back to earth and listen to the prayers of mortals? So +they reasoned, and this was why that on this sunny spring day the hills +where the dead slept were thronged with the living. An endless +procession passed in and out of the gates of the city, the square +battlements and watch-towers were deserted, and upon the great stone +bridge that spanned the water, the throng surged ever backward and +forward. Little groups were gathered around many of the graves, busily +sweeping and repairing them; the smoke of incense curled upward on +every side, and prayers arose, not for the repose of the dead, but for +the welfare of the living; while strips of gay paper fluttering around +some of the headstones told that here the usual rites had been performed +and the family had gone home to enjoy the social feast with which the +holiday closes. Before one of the tombs, far more pretentious than any +of its neighbors, the Viceroy stopped and alighted from his sedan. + +His forefather had evidently been some high mandarin, for a stone wall +surrounded a large, horse-shoe shaped enclosure, and in this teeming +land, where earth was so precious that only a little portion could be +allotted to a few of the living, it was a sign of great wealth to have +so much space for an ancestor. Standing at the entrance to this grave +were two stone horses, saddled and bridled, ready to bear the spirit on +its journey in the other world, and a little distance away two rudely +sculptured lions kept watch over the tomb. At the end of the enclosure +and opposite the entrance, was the tablet bearing the name of the +departed, and before this the Viceroy knelt down. First he offered the +five-fold sacrifice, consisting of a fowl, a fish, a pig, a bird, and a +goose, with many prostrations and petitions, then he placed before the +tablet five plates filled with fruit, and five cups of wine. This done, +he lit the incense sticks, and knocking his head nine times upon the +ground, prayed for the three great blessings,--riches, honor, and long +life. Rising, he fastened long streamers of red and white paper at the +back of the wall, holding it in place by the customary three pieces of +turf, and again entered his sedan. His servants meanwhile carefully +packed the offerings of fruit, meats, and wine in the baskets to take +home, for they were far too frugal to permit such things to go to +waste, and that very night these same provisions would be served at the +Viceroy's table. + +As the high magistrate and his attendants wended their way home, Ta-ta +who had been quiet for some time, turned to Tuen with a friendly piece +of advice. + +"You had better put all this nonsense about books, and being learned +like a man, out of your little head, else no man will want to marry you, +and you must remember that you are getting old enough now to think about +having a mother-in-law." + +"I don't want one ever," Tuen declared. "I would much rather just belong +to the Viceroy always." + +"How stupid you are," Ta-ta said impatiently. "Of course you must be +sold to someone. I never knew a woman over fifteen who did not have a +mother-in-law." + +But Tuen cried pleadingly to Wang: + +"Oh, don't let them sell me again. Indeed, indeed, I don't want to have +any other master." + +"I am afraid someone will see you and want to marry you, and if they +offer him a good price the Viceroy will not be a fool and refuse it," +Wang said sadly. "You are getting to be a woman now, and you are good to +look at, and for that reason someone is sure to want you." + +This prospect filled Tuen with dismay, and that night she cried herself +to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +But as months went by and she heard of no one having offered to purchase +her, Tuen forgot her fears, and came to think that she would always live +in the yâmen. It was now winter, and throughout the length and breadth +of the vast Empire preparations were being made for the annual holiday. +Before the festal day arrived, however, the home of the Viceroy became a +house of mourning, for the little Tung-li lay dead. Despite prayers and +amulets, the propitious words of the soothsayers, and the conjurations +of the priests, "he had gone to wander among the genii," still wearing +locked around his neck the string of coins it had been fondly hoped +would lock him fast to life. Clad in shimmering satin and embroidered +crêpe, a fan in one hand and in the other a printed prayer, he lay all +cold and calm upon the floor, and in the roof above him was a gaping +hole made to allow the spirits inhabiting his body to escape, and +through it had crept a wandering moonbeam that fell upon his placid +face, and gave him the look of one who slept. Near him was a table +filled with every delicacy to tempt the palate, that they who watched +and mourned might also feast, and upon it burned incense and candles, +filling the room with pungent smoke. In an adjoining room twelve priests +bowed before an image made of brass, the god of the lower regions. This +mocking thing they supplicated squatted solemnly upon a golden cloth +strewn with rice, while the kneeling priests chanted prayers for the +dead, and beat upon drums and cymbals, while above it all could be heard +the shrill wailing of the women waiting in the corridors. The Viceroy, +clothed in spotless white (for that is the mourning color of the +country), sat beside the body of his son, his expression one of profound +grief. He had been so proud of this boy, his son and heir, and he had +fondly thought that when he went away to join his fathers, Tung-li would +be left to tend his grave and worship his tablet. Now he was left alone +in his old age. + +So, amid the noise made by the priests, and the shrill cries of the +women, and the silent grief of the Viceroy, the night passed, and in the +time that intervened between this and the last funeral rites, geomancers +were kept busy finding a suitable resting place for the body, lest it be +buried in an unlucky spot. + +Although it is not customary to have any elaborate ceremonies when +children die, the Viceroy had determined that Tung-li should be buried +with all the honors befitting his high rank, and for that reason the +funeral procession was a most imposing one. + +The body was put in a coffin of thick wood, ornamented with many gilt +figures, and then placed in a richly decked gilt pavilion, covered with +a canopy of bright colored silk. Thus, as if going to a festival was +Tung-li borne through the city and to the hills beyond. Before him went +an attendant, scattering paper money along the way to buy the good will +of the wicked spirits who are doomed to wander over the earth and make +mischief wherever they go, and behind him came the bearers of gay +standards, fluttering banners and gilded figures, and the sacrifices to +be offered at the grave. These were in turn followed by a long line of +priests, while close behind the coffin were the mourners, clothed in +white, their cries of anguish rising above the clamorous discord of the +gongs and cymbals, while every now and then could be heard the +reverberating notes of the drum as three loud taps were sounded upon it. + +Human nature is the same wherever you find it--in the East and in the +West--and love for those who are near to us is strong in the breast of +high and low, the ignorant and degraded and the wealthy aristocrat. No +matter what the nationality of the Viceroy he was a father, and as he +saw his only child given to the earth, amid the firing of crackers, the +sound of music and the smoke of incense, bitter was his sorrow. Then +libations were poured out, and clothes, houses, money, and horses, made +of paper, were burned, that Tung-li might not be lacking in worldly +goods in that strange land to which he had gone, for they believed that +by a kind of miracle these paper articles would in the spirit world +become in very truth the things they represented, and they wanted to +supply Tung-li with many possessions. Having thus started him on his +long journey with all the wealth and pomp befitting the son of a great +Viceroy, they left him. + +That night Tuen carried tea to her master, and despite his sorrow he +noticed how fair she was, and with what swiftness and grace she moved +about. It did not escape him, either, that her eyes were red from +weeping, for she had dearly loved the sedate little Tung-li, and of his +dead son he now spoke to her. Her answers greatly surprised him, and +after he had talked to her for several minutes an idea suddenly came to +him, and he arose and went to find his wife. + +"Dismiss your maids. I wish to speak to you," he said to that astonished +lady, who sat weeping in helpless sorrow. Wondering at his manner, and +at what she saw in his face, she complied, and as soon as they were +alone he commenced to talk of Tuen. + +"She is a remarkable girl," he announced decisively, "and I have come +to tell you that I have resolved to adopt her." + +She uttered a cry of amazement. + +"Adopt Tuen?" she breathed. + +"Yes, why not?" he answered. "She is beautiful and modest, and her apt +replies are marvellous. We are childless, and she will be an ornament to +any home. I will arrange a great marriage for her." + +"Oh, very well," his wife said indifferently. "I never saw anything at +all unusual about her, but I suppose she is as desirable as any other +girl." Here she commenced to weep again, as she thought of the dead +Tung-li, and even the Viceroy said with a sigh: + +"Of course she can never take the place of a son, for she will soon +marry and belong to her husband's parents, but still she is intelligent +and pretty. We can take her now, and later I will look around for the +son of a relative to adopt." + +"I don't want any one but my own Tung-li," sobbed the poor lady of the +Viceroy; and because he disliked to see a woman cry, and always tried to +escape from any domestic unpleasantness, the Viceroy went back to his +audience hall in haste, and sent for Tuen. + +When he told her that she was henceforth to be his daughter, the little +slave girl of Hunan could scarcely believe her ears, and stood staring +at him as one stricken dumb. All at once she understood this great good +fortune that had come to her, and with a cry of joy she threw herself at +his feet, and embraced him ecstatically. + +"Oh, I will try to be so good--Oh, I will try to be so good," she said +over and over; and she sobbed for very gladness. + +The Viceroy pulled himself away from her feeling distinctly aggrieved, +for it seemed that he could not escape weeping females--the one thing +he particularly detested. + +But when Tuen stood up before him, her eyes shining all the brighter for +her tears, and her face radiant with joy, he forgave her for her sobs, +and said pompously: + +"You must be worthy of me, Tuen. You have proved that even a female can +by her own industry exalt herself, and now I shall expect much of you." + +And Tuen told herself that he should not be disappointed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Now followed the happiest time Tuen had ever known, and as the daughter +of the Viceroy she became at once a person of importance. It was such a +new, such a delightful sensation to be waited on and noticed and obeyed +by the slaves that it took her a good many weeks to get used to it all. +The Viceroy in turn, was well pleased with his new daughter, and +although she was very fair, with tender, melting almond eyes, and +midnight tresses, it was not her beauty so much as her wisdom that +delighted him; and when he looked at her he recalled the words of Niu +Tsang: "Although she is fair to look upon, and strong with the strength +of youth, yet is her intellect, that lamp that so seldom illumes the +head of woman, her greatest possession." + +"He spoke truly," the Viceroy would murmur, "and only the son of a +mandarin shall have her in marriage." + +And then he would sigh to think that even now it was time to betroth +her. But while he pondered over these things he received news from +Peking that completely banished all thoughts of Tuen from his mind, and +forever changed the current of her life. Now the Viceroy stood high in +imperial favor on account of many valuable services, and for his zeal in +checking the famous rebellion, and he had several times been advanced in +rank by his sovereign. But he had just received tidings that a new and a +higher decoration had been conferred upon him, and he sought for some +costly gift to lay at the feet of that august and jealous ruler who +calls himself the Son of Heaven. For every mark of favor received from +the Emperor's hands the subject is expected to send some valuable +present as a token of gratitude, and the Viceroy had already presented +so many gifts that he was at loss what to send. He searched the province +for some treasure that would be worthy the acceptance of a monarch, and +had brought before him all the richest wares of the land, but he found +nothing to satisfy his fastidious taste. Beset by these perplexities, he +determined to give a great feast and invite all the learned and +influential men of the city, with the hope that some of them would know +of a curio or article of vertu that he might be able to procure. +Accordingly crimson tickets were sent out to all the high officials of +Lu Chang, requesting them to bestow "the illumination of their presence" +on a given night the following week, and a theatrical troupe was engaged +to give a performance on that occasion, for with the Chinese the theatre +may almost be considered the national amusement, so great is the +fondness of all classes for this form of diversion. + +When the appointed evening arrived a distinguished assembly was gathered +in the audience hall at the Viceroy's yâmen, at one end of which a stage +had been erected. The Viceroy and his guest of the highest rank--the +governor-general of a neighboring province--occupied a table placed on a +slightly elevated platform, while the other guests were arranged in two +rows on each side of the room, seated two at a table. When all had +assembled, the Viceroy stood up and drank the health of his friends from +a small gilt cup shaped like a Grecian urn, then amid the sound of gong +and bell the first course was placed upon the tables, and the feast +commenced. First, salted relishes were served in dainty porcelain +saucers, and then came that greatest delicacy to Chinese epicures, +bird-nest soup, accompanied by pigeons' eggs and soy, while hot wine +was poured for all from silver tankards in the hands of obsequious +servants. These were followed by fish, game, and poultry, cut fine and +made into stews, which the company very dexterously managed by means of +their silver-tipped ivory chopsticks. + +In the meantime the players, clad in brilliant costumes, tell the story +of a beautiful wife of a former Emperor, who was demanded as a tribute +by the Tartar Khan. The Emperor is in despair, for his country is weak +and not prepared to go to war with this formidable chieftain, and so +dearly does he love his charming wife that he cannot consent to part +with her. At last he is forced to yield. The music swells louder and +louder as the moment arrives for the last farewell between the Emperor +and his beloved. The guests look up from the bowls of shark-fins before +them and nod approvingly, and even the Viceroy's countenance expresses +his pleasure at the scene. + +Now a savory dish composed of the sinews of deer was brought in, +followed by bowls of rice. The music sinks to a low, reverberating wail +as the Princess tragically exclaims: + +"What place is this?" + +For she is on her way to the home of the hostile Khan--the price of +peace. + +And when the Khan had answered her: + +"It is the river of the Black Dragon, the frontier between the Tartar +boundaries and those of China. This southern shore is the Emperor's--on +the northern side commences our Tartar dominion," the Princess said +calmly: + +"Great King, I take a cup of wine and pour a libation towards the south, +a final adieu to the Emperor." + +And as she finishes this rite she adds: + +"Sovereign of Han, this life is finished,--I await thee in the next." + +With these words upon her lips she casts herself in the dark, turgid +waters of the Black Dragon, and is never seen again by mortal eyes. + +As this climax is reached the rice is removed and the tables strewn with +flowers, and from amid this mass of loveliness peep out sweetmeats and +confections of every kind, intermixed with the fragrant citron or +Buddha's hand, of which, while growing, the skin is cut into strips, +each forming an end like fingers, while golden oranges, grapes, and +monstrous, yet unpalatable, pears strew the board. This course completed +the banquet, and the servants came in bringing tea, while on the stage +the Emperor wailed the loss of his beautiful love in agonizing strains. + +As they chatted merrily and sipped their tea, the Viceroy broached the +subject that lay nearest his heart, but he found to his dismay that none +of his friends were able to help him. One and all they shook their +heads after he had enumerated the choice articles he had already +examined. + +"There is nothing richer in the Empire," the governor-general said +decisively. + +"But it will be an insult to my Emperor to send him a gift that is +excelled by something I have already presented," the Viceroy cried +despairingly. "Can no one help me out of this unfortunate difficulty?" + +All were for a time silent, then Wo Ting, a mandarin and a man of much +wisdom, said sententiously: + +"The Viceroy of Kiang-si is said to have lately found a lovely daughter. +Let him draw his inspiration from the play we have just seen." + +The Viceroy looked at him in puzzled wonder, and as the meaning of the +strange words dawned upon him he exclaimed in amazement: + +"Send Tuen to the Emperor!" + +Wo Ting made a sign of assent, and someone else remarked: + +"Why not? 'Tis no small honor to be the handmaid of the Son of Heaven, +the greatest king upon earth. Find yourself a son, and let the girl go." + +"I do not wish to part with her, not just yet," the Viceroy said slowly. + +"She will go away sooner or later to the household of her husband," the +governor-general told him. "After all it is the same thing, for in +either case she is lost to you. It is only a son who is a joy forever." + +"True! True!" cried a dozen voices. "What matters a girl?" + +"I will consider the question, my friends," the Viceroy said. "She is +indeed beautiful and wise and good--my dearest treasure--and a fitting +recompense for any honor. She is worthy the acceptance of the greatest +of monarchs." + +So saying he turned again to the stage and listened to the lamentations +of the grief-stricken Emperor, and the fate of Tuen was not further +discussed that night. + +But Wo Ting remarked in a low tone to his neighbor: + +"I should very much like to see that girl. It is whispered that he +bought her for a slave, but that she turned out to be so uncommonly wise +that he found a teacher for her, and she has been learning to read. +After he found what a wonder she was, since she was also pretty, he +adopted her. He is a very rich man, and doubtless he would provide well +for her if he gave her in marriage. I have a son about her age, and I +had been thinking of sending one of the match-makers to arrange matters +with him, and get her for my son. But of course if she goes to the +Emperor that settles it. If he does not send her--and I think he is +loath to start her on such a long journey--I may decide to take her for +my daughter-in-law. It wouldn't be a bad plan," and he scratched his +chin reflectively. + +But Tuen was sweetly sleeping, and dreaming of the day when she would be +a wise woman who could read, and she did not know that her fate hung in +the balance. And even if she had known she would have been powerless to +change it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +It was the afternoon after the feast. + +The Viceroy sipped his tea meditatively in his favorite court, and +occasionally fanned himself in a mechanical way, but his thoughts were +evidently elsewhere. The goldfinch above his head hopped about and +chirped loudly to him, begging for some rice, but he heeded it not, and +a little lizard crept across the walk, eyeing him furtively, and then +scampered away among the grasses on the bank of the lake, but it need +not have feared him to-day. Drip, drip, drip, fell the drops from the +fountain in a minor monotone, and in the calm water of the lake the fish +darted like flames of fire, and poppy petals dropped silently to the +ground. Behind the Viceroy's chair a slave stood dozing. + +"Tell my daughter to come here," his master said suddenly; and the slave +eyed him stupidly for a moment, and then hastened off to do his bidding. +But when Tuen came he did not speak for some time, and seemed casting +about in his mind for the best way to begin. Then he cleared his throat +importantly. + +"I have something to say to you," he remarked, watching her closely from +the corners of his eyes. + +She waited but did not answer, and he went on: + +"I have a new honor in store for you." Having delivered himself of this +announcement he examined his long, pointed nails critically, and +satisfied that they were scrupulous in appearance, he commenced to drum +idly on the table. All this time Tuen was standing breathless before +him, fearing something, yet she knew not what. + +"You see His Most Mighty and Gracious Majesty, the Ever Wise and Ever +Perfect Son of Heaven has lately condescended to honor my unworthy +self," he volunteered affably, and all the capitals were expressed in +his voice as he spoke of his sovereign. "I have sought everywhere in the +province for a gift to send in return that would be worthy of his +acceptance, and last night I gave a feast that I might ask of others, +perhaps wiser than I am. Then it was that the learned Wo Ting suggested +that I should give _you_ to him--an admirable idea, Tuen." + +Poor Tuen had been listening in wondering horror, and she now gave a +gasp, but he did not appear to notice this. + +"You will get ready to go to Peking to be a handmaid to our mighty +king." With wild cries Tuen knelt before the Viceroy, the tears +streaming down her face. "Oh do not send me away," she pleaded. "I will +be so good--I will work for you as a slave all my life--only let me stay +here." + +The Viceroy arched his brows. + +"What a fuss to make about nothing!" he commented. "You ought to be +proud to be sent. I fear after all you are more foolish than other +women." + +But Tuen did not care how silly he thought her, if she could only beg +him out of this awful plan. Just when she was so happy must it all come +to an end? Was she again to be sent forth, alone and friendless, among +strangers? Oh, it was too horrible! And it seemed so useless! She was +satisfied, why not let her stay where she was? Some of this she managed +to tell the Viceroy between her sobs, but he listened impatiently. + +"There is no cause for such sorrow, I tell you," he repeated. "Great is +the Emperor, and his riches like the ever-flowing waters. There is no +end to them. His palace, I have heard, is of gold and gems; there is +nothing like it in all the world." + +But this picture brought no consolation to Tuen. She only moaned and +cried and begged to stay where she was. + +"Is it that you are angry with me?" she asked. "Do I no longer please +you, that you want to get rid of me?" + +"No, Tuen," he answered, "it is only that I do not know what else to +send my Emperor, and I dare not risk his displeasure. But neither will +he thank me to send him an unwilling girl, so dry your eyes." + +"Then it would be a great favor to you if I went and looked happy?" she +inquired in a curiously strained voice. + +"So I have told you," he said wearily, for he detested scenes most +cordially, and was anxious to bring this one to a close. + +Then it was that the little slave girl showed the greatness of her +nature, for she wiped away her tears and rose to her feet. Standing +before him she said slowly: + +"You have been very good to me. I have not forgotten that. If I can now +do you a kindness, and thus repay you for all you have done for me--I +will go, but I go with a heavy heart." + +"Well, it is settled, and you have acted as a dutiful daughter should," +he said, drawing a long breath of relief. "I will at once make ready for +your departure." + +"Must I go so soon?" she said pleadingly. + +"At once," he answered decisively. + +Again the tears welled up in the eyes of Tuen, and try as she would she +could not keep them back: + +"Oh, it is so hard to leave all my dear friends!" she moaned. "And Wang, +who has been so good to me--" She could go no further. + +"Wang can go with you," he said. "You must have servants, as befits +your rank, for you are now the daughter of the Viceroy of Kiang-si." + +"Oh, I am so glad I can have Wang!" she cried, and this was the only +gleam of joy in the blackness of her despair. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Tuen went about as one in a dream after her interview with the Viceroy, +but she uttered no complaint. She had decided to go willingly, even +cheerfully, on account of the many favors she had received from her +benefactor, since she knew that he wished her to go, and day by day she +nerved herself to the ordeal. Knowing that she was helpless, she +accepted her fate in silence, and gradually she became more resigned. +Girls in China are not allowed to have a voice in such matters,--that +she knew, and after all she had always been most fortunate. Then she had +heard that the faithful Wang would accompany her, and that Ta-ta, whom +she loved dearly, would go as her maid, and she was pleased with this +arrangement. She had learned, too, that she was to go in great state. A +barge was even now being fitted up for her convenience, and she would +have not only Wang and Ta-ta, but other servants to wait upon her, and +the blind old story-teller, Szu, would be sent along that he might +beguile the weariness of the journey, which would last three months. The +entire trip would be made by water, first through unimportant streams, +then into the Yang-tse-kiang, and on through the Grand Canal. + +The time that intervened before her departure was filled with bustle and +confusion, and she hardly had a moment to think about the future, even +if she had wanted to. There were many things to be arranged when one +went on such a long trip, and Tuen must also be provided with handsome +costumes, suitable to be worn at court. She could not repress +exclamations of delight when she saw all the beautiful things that were +designed for her, and she commenced to feel that she had not been very +badly treated by the gods. + +The morning appointed for her to set out dawned fair and pleasant, but +all night she had lain awake and thought about her journey, for she had +been too excited to sleep. When she was ready to leave and there was no +excuse for longer delaying, all the servants of the yâmen pressed around +her to say goodbye, and the Viceroy and his wife looked very sad, for in +their way they were quite fond of their pretty adopted daughter. Tuen +was as one stunned by a sudden blow. She neither wept nor said a word, +but when the last adieus were over and she was safely ensconced in her +little apartment on the barge, she covered her head with the silken +cover of her couch and wailed aloud. But one cannot cry always, and +after the first paroxysm of grief had passed she wiped her eyes, that +were now red and swollen, and looked curiously about her. There was +nothing interesting in the narrow room, with its cot and bamboo +pillow,--the only other furniture a low stool and many cushions,--but +from without came noises of every description, forming an indescribable +din. Rising from the floor where she had thrown herself, she pressed her +face against the tiny window of painted gauze, and gazed with eager +interest at the scene on the busy water. What a great, hurrying world it +was! And how full of struggling, shouting people! She even experienced a +thrill of enjoyment of her novel surroundings. Barges, junks, +pleasure-boats, passage-boats, floating homes, freight-boats, sculls and +river crafts of every description passed each other in an endless +procession. Women in flowing blue robes, their hair adorned with +flowers and glittering pins, rowed many of the heavy boats, their +armlets and anklets clinking musically with every motion. Now a tankia +glided by, with only a bamboo canopy as protection from rain and sun and +cold, the mother at the helm, while around her clustered happy children +who had never known any other home than this little "egg house." For so +great is the population of China that many families live in boats upon +the rivers, and have but little knowledge of mother earth, as they but +seldom feel the ground beneath their feet. Tuen looked with delight at +the many phases of life that surged around her as unceasingly as the +ripples of the water, and then passed away. Now she shuddered as a +clumsy lighter, used for loading and unloading coal, bore down upon her +on its way to the distant ocean, and again she laughed to see the dainty +flower-boat with its intricate wood-carving, bright lanterns, flags and +strips of gay-colored paper floating from the side, dart past her. When +Wang entered she turned to her with her eyes shining with excitement. + +"Did you ever dream there were so many boats and so many people in the +world, Wang?" she cried. + +Wang smiled and shook her head. + +"You had better come outside with me, where you can see it all," she +said, and to this Tuen gladly assented. + +When on deck, protected from the glare of the sun by the bamboo +covering, she clapped her hands ecstatically, and ran about the boat, +peering out first on one side and then on the other. From the room +within, it had all worn a misty look, as if it were some panorama +passing before her, but now the full reality and intensity of it burst +upon her, and she straightway forgot that she was Tuen, forgot the +little details, the hopes, fears, sorrows, and memories that were part +of her own existence alone, and only felt that she was one of this vast +multitude, and her identity seemed to merge into and be lost in the mass +of humanity that surrounded her. And once having done this, she forgot +to grieve. + +Some children in a tankia close to her smiled at her gravely, while the +father hung paper prayers upon the prow, and the mother, with strong, +even strokes, guided the boat toward the shallows. The clamor of shrill +voices, so intermingled that hardly a word was distinguishable, formed a +not unpleasing medley of sounds, and it rang into Tuen's ears until she +was fairly deafened. + +"Is there no danger that where there are so many crafts some may be run +into and sunk?" she finally asked, as the boats thickened and there +seemed not an inch of water left. + +"The rowers are skilful. I have heard that accidents do not often +happen," Wang said, but scarce had she finished speaking, when a +war-junk that was coming in an opposite direction, bore down upon them. +Threatening cannons peered from the port-holes, and on its gaudy red and +yellow sides were shields upon which were painted fierce tigers, more +terrible to look at than any god to whom she had ever prayed. She caught +her breath quickly, and clung to Wang. + +"We shall be killed!" she cried, and Wang was so terror-stricken that +she could not answer. The sailors on Tuen's boat uttered loud, warning +shouts, and pulled away lustily, and the men on the war-junk, seeing +that the barge was directly in their path, rowed valiantly. But the +water was so crowded that there was very little room to turn, and for an +instant, there seemed no chance of escape. Just when destruction +appeared certain, and Wang covered her face to shut out the awful sight, +the cumbrous vessel veered to one side, and they were left unharmed. + +"It was a narrow escape," the man at the helm of Tuen's boat said, +nodding toward the junk that now lay on their left. "I thought we should +all be killed," and the rowers hurled loud imprecations at the junk, and +Ta-ta shook her fist at them, and while engaged in this, also thanked +the gods for her safety. + +"It is time for rice," Wang said, after they had watched the junk well +on its way. "Let us go in now." + +Tuen was very glad to follow her, for her heart was still beating +quickly, and her cheeks were pale. The danger through which they had +passed had, for a time at least, robbed river-life of its fascination +for her. + +That night she dreamed of boats, boats, boats, as she heard the +innumerable stream of them go gliding by, and the great, round eyes on +the prows of all seemed to be watching her angrily through the +darkness. She drew a long sigh of relief when she awoke and found that +they had at last stopped, and as she listened, afraid to go to sleep +again, the incessant noise gradually hushed, and all became as still as +in the yâmen of the Viceroy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +The barge that bore Tuen to Peking proceeded slowly on its way, for why +should one economize time or labor in a country where there are more +hands than work for them to do? The novelty of the trip kept her well +amused, and she cared not how long they drifted idly on, for the present +was very satisfactory to her. After they had passed through the +beautiful Lake Poyana, sleeping like an inland sea cradled by the +encircling mountains, they entered the vast Yang-tse-kiang, that ever +ebbed and flowed in calm strength, as it swept on to where it was lost +in the vaster waters of the ocean. No wonder Tuen was enchanted with the +sights that greeted her. Around her was ever the same endless throng, +in its struggle for existence, and if she tired of this epitome of human +life, she had but to raise her eyes to the hills beyond, dotted with the +innumerable graves of the dead, to see the end of it all, though, as she +was not a philosopher, she doubtless did not think about it in this way. +Graceful pagodas, with bells and glittering ornaments swinging from the +corners of the curving, many-storied roofs, stood out here and there +like solitary beacons, although they lit no way. Along the river banks +were fertile plains, converted into regularly laid out fields and +gardens, that for thousands of years had yielded a full harvest from +their inexhaustible richness, and numerous cottages, some with tiled +roofs shining in the sunlight, others with only a covering of straw, +diversified the landscape. Sometimes they threaded their way among +barren islands that rose like mammoths of the deep, and again passed +walled cities where the river lapped hungrily against its boundaries, +or they loitered beside little white towns embowered in green. Oft-times +Szu whiled away the hours by telling her the glorious history of this, +her native land, for he loved to dilate on the importance of the Flowery +Kingdom. In fact he believed it to be the garden spot of the world, and +as he had never been anywhere else, we must pardon his vanity. "We are +the greatest and wisest nation in the world," he would tell Tuen +pompously. "We are the most learned and prosperous of all people, and we +have the oldest and the highest civilization. We have borrowed no +foreign inventions or arts, we have not asked them to frame the laws to +govern us nor to solve our difficulties. All we have ever asked of any +of them is--let us alone. We are not like the barbarians--always +quarrelling and fighting, and running about the earth. History tells +that we have always been a civilized, peaceful race. Our language is +our own, our literature has not sought for themes or inspiration in +other climes, our institutions are the outcome of our own wisdom, and +our land provides everything that is necessary for her children. We are +the one independent nation. Confucius, the wisest of all men, left us +our code of morals, and the Son of Heaven rules over us. Our kingdom +contains one third of the population of the whole earth, and nearly +every one of the inventions that these barbarians think they discovered +they find have been in use by us long before they were a nation. Who was +it that discovered the compass? We did. Who first made porcelain? We +did. Who made paper first? We did. These barbarians who sail up to our +ports, with great guns on their vessels, would never have had any +gun-powder for their guns if it had not been for us. Of course since you +have been learning to read you have found out that we it was who +invented printing, and made it possible for every one to have books. +Nowhere can be found so many and such great cities as we have, and not +only the land but the waters are covered with our towns. I wish we could +shut ourselves off, as once we were, and never see another barbarian. +But alas, we cannot, for they cannot get along without us." + +Thus Szu, puffed up with pride, instructed Tuen in the facts of Chinese +history, and she drank in every word he said eagerly. Truly it was +wonderful! And as he perceived her intense interest, Szu talked more and +more of these things, though he omitted to tell her that his nation was +the most egotistical one in all the world, but perhaps he did not know +this. Again he would tell of the ancient kings, and of the great Kublai +Khan, who reigned in the Golden Age of China. + +"Those were happy times," he would say with a sigh. "We will never see +the like again. When the New Year came then all his subjects gave him +rich presents, not only of gold and silver and precious stones and fine +cloths, but also five thousand camels, one hundred thousand white +horses, and five thousand elephants, covered with cloths of silk and +gold, and each beast had on its back a box filled with vessels of gold +and silver. When they passed before the most holy Emperor, they formed +the most brilliant spectacle ever seen by the eyes of man." + +Tuen gasped as she tried to picture in her imagination this most +gorgeous sight, and looking at Szu with eyes filled with amazement, she +asked, timidly: + +"Is that all indeed the very truth?" + +"The truth?" he cried, indignantly. "Do you dare to question the +accounts of our great historians--you, a foolish girl? It has all come +down to us just as I have related it to you, and no one, not even the +barbarians, have doubted it. If you think Szu but a romancer, he will +remain silent." + +"Oh, no, no," she entreated, "indeed I did not mean that! It was so +marvellous that I would like to hear more about this same great one." + +Somewhat pacified, and anxious to talk on such an interesting subject, +Szu said: + +"Perhaps you would not believe it, either, were I to recount how, then, +no one in all the land was hungry, and yet it is a fact, for the Kublai +Khan gave of his great wealth to his people. Whenever the crops were +injured, he demanded no taxes, and when rice was scarce, he sold it for +one fourth the regular price out of his own storehouse. And if any +families had no food to eat, he caused provision to be given them, and +rice was not refused at court throughout the whole year to any that came +to beg for it. Think of no one ever starving to death then! It was the +strangest thing that ever men heard of. Not only did the Kublai Khan +feed his subjects, but he had countless public looms that were running +all the time, where garments were woven and given to the poor, so that +none could say that they were hungry or cold." + +"I would have liked to be alive then," Tuen said, wistfully, and in this +they all agreed with her. + +"There has never been such another ruler in any land," Szu told her. +"The whole world has heard of him, and marvelled at his greatness and +his goodness." + +At this, Tuen sighed, for she had just been wishing that the august one +to whom she went had been rich and kind like the Khan. But she did not +think much about him, for no one could tell her anything, and so she +could only wait. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +One day when the sun was hot and she was tired, Tuen said to Szu +impatiently: + +"Don't you know anything except about the old kings and their wars?" + +Now Szu, although he was old and blind and feeble, was well endowed with +tact and quickness, and after revolving the question in his mind, he +answered graciously: + +"There are two stories that I have not yet told you, and they might be +of interest to you, since they are of women, and of women, too, who +dwelt within the Forbidden City." + +"Let me hear them," Tuen said listlessly. "I did not know there were +any stories about women. I thought they were all about men." + +"There have been females--though their number is few--whose names the +bards have perpetuated," the old man replied. + +"You may commence," Tuen interrupted, her curiosity aroused. + +Seating himself on the deck of the boat, and folding his hands, his head +thrown back and his sightless eyes seeming to gaze before him, Szu began +in a monotonous, sing-song voice, that yet was clear and soft: + +"It happened many years, aye, many centuries, ago--this strange event +that I tell to you now as but a passing tale. And yet the fame of this +woman will endure forever, though all things else belonging to that +far-away time have perished. At this remote period of which I speak +Kaou-tsung, the second Emperor of the Tang dynasty, was seated upon the +throne. Great was the prosperity of the Empire, and rumors of its +glories and of its wonders spread to the outer regions, and ambassadors +came from Nepaul, Persia, and even from a far-away dominion called Rome, +to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven. He had magnificent palaces and +stately temples, and he numbered his warriors by thousands. Then, as it +has ever been, for we are the one nation favored by the gods, we were +civilized and wise, and all other people came to learn of us, even as it +is to this very day. Kaou-tsung built canals and cities, following the +example of his illustrious father, and bestowed peace and plenty on all +his subjects, but still he was not content. He had women from the +various provinces to while away his tedious hours, but they were all +alike stupid and silly, and he found no pleasure with them. + +"'Surely in my kingdom there lives one female who combines both wisdom +and beauty,' he exclaimed one day, and after due deliberation he sent +forth his minister to seek for a woman who was both wise and pretty. +When he heard of the mission entrusted to him the minister sighed and +shook his head. + +"'Your quest is vain,' he told his sovereign. 'There lives not such a +being. All women are but foolish creatures, and those endowed with +beauty are the most foolish of all. They wear their gifts upon the +outside, and within them there is naught.' + +"'Presume not to argue with me,' Kaou-tsung cried angrily, 'but go and +do as I have commanded.' + +"Now, this minister was most skilful with the pencil, and the Emperor +instructed him to traverse the length and breadth of his vast +possessions, letting it be known everywhere that he sought the fairest +and the wisest in the land to be the bride of the king, and whenever he +found one who appeared to possess these necessary qualifications, he was +to make a picture of her. When his quest was ended, he was to return to +the court, bringing with him these likenesses of the fair maidens of the +land, and the Emperor would select the one that pleased him best. But +when the minister was gone he saw in this a chance to enrich himself, +and as all women were desirous of being the chosen one he drew not any +who did not give him costly offerings. The Emperor, waiting in his +palace, knew not of this, and was most impatient for his return. In the +meantime, some one brought news to the court of the surpassing +loveliness of a girl named Woo How, who was a daughter of a cultivator +of the soil. When he heard the reports of the wonderful beauty of this +maiden the Emperor sent a courier in great haste after his minister, +bearing the message: + +"'Return not without the likeness of Woo How.' + +"The minister forthwith went in search of this beauteous one, and when +he found her she was fairer than any woman he had ever seen, and +conducted herself in a modest way, yielding ready answers to all his +questions. But alas, the father was very poor, and could not pay the +price demanded by the mercenary minister, therefore this unworthy +servant of a generous king drew a picture of exceeding ugliness, and +under it he wrote the name of Woo How, for he was determined that no one +should be Empress who did not first buy his favor. At last this scheming +official--Maou-yen-show by name--came back to court, bringing with him a +collection of pictures of the so-called beauties of the land, who had +paid him well to be their ambassador. The Emperor examined them +critically. + +"'This one pleases me not. Her nose is too long,' he said, casting +aside the first one. + +"'And this one is ugly enough to scare the dragon away,' he exclaimed +when he saw the second. + +"'This one's mouth is all askew,' was his comment on the third, and so +he ran through the whole list, finding none that pleased him. + +"'I might as well send a blind man to pick out a beautiful female as +this stolid Maou-yen-show,' he cried angrily, when he had finished. +'Truly he knows not the difference between a woman and a demon.' + +"But the minister bowing obsequiously insisted that these were indeed +the most beautiful in the land. + +"'Then I want none of them,' his sovereign replied, 'for an uglier lot I +never beheld.' + +"After this Kaou-tsung made no further attempt to find himself a fitting +bride, but was immersed in the affairs of state. One day, however, as +he rode forth, surrounded by his troops, to take his annual hunt, he saw +beside the road a young girl of such wondrous loveliness that he could +not take his eyes from her face. + +"'Bring her to me,' he ordered his attendants, as she, not knowing that +it was the Emperor and his suite, but thinking that it was only some +great mandarin, would have passed on. + +"When the soldiers approached her, saying at the same time, 'The Emperor +who waits yonder has sent for you,' she was greatly terrified. Her face +turned very white, and her knees trembled so that she could hardly +stand, for she knew not what was about to befall her. + +"When she had prostrated herself before Kaou-tsung he ordered all his +attendants to withdraw to a little distance and there remain until he +summoned them, for he wished to speak, unheard by others, to this fair +maiden. When they were alone he said kindly: + +"'Rise, most beautiful one, for I desire to look at you.' + +"Blushing at his words, she raised her face but remained upon her knees. + +"'Verily the sun seemed hid when I saw not your eyes,' Kaou-tsung +continued, for he was much impressed with her beauty. + +"Seeing that she did not speak, but only blushed the more, he asked: + +"'What is your name?' + +"'Woo How,' she murmured, all abashed. + +"'What!' cried the astonished Emperor; 'not Woo How, the daughter of one +Tai-ting?' + +"'The very same,' she answered, not knowing why he was amazed. + +"'But the picture Maou-yen-show brought to me?' he questioned, in great +perplexity. + +"'Ah, I had not the treasures to give him and he would not make it,' +she answered sadly. + +"At this a light suddenly broke upon Kaou-tsung, and he saw the perfidy +of the minister he had trusted. + +"'Rise, most beautiful one in all the land,' he cried to her, 'for you +shall be the bride of the Emperor. At last have I found the creature I +sought.' Thus in spite of treachery did the gods bring it to pass that +Woo How became the Empress, for what Tên Wang decrees must be, no matter +how we strive against it." + +"That was indeed a charming story," Tuen cried enthusiastically, as the +old man paused. "It is the nicest one I ever heard." + +"It is not yet finished," Szu said quickly. "It were but a broken thread +if I left it there." + +"Oh, tell it all to me," she cried eagerly. "I would never tire of +listening about her." + +Szu nodded his head complacently and cleared his throat. Then he went +on: + +"The happy Kaou-tsung forgot about the hunt, and returned at once to his +imperial palace, carrying Woo How with him. It was so ordained that +Maou-yen-show was not of the party that attended the Emperor that day, +and knew nothing of his meeting with Woo How. Immediately upon his +arrival at court Kaou-tsung gave the following order: + +"'Keeper of the Yellow Gate, bring us that picture that we may view it.' + +"Looking from it to the charming original before him he exclaimed +feelingly: + +"'Ah, how he has dimmed the purity of the gem, bright as the waves in +autumn!' + +"Then turning to the attendant he said: + +"'Transmit our pleasure to the officer of the guard to behead +Maou-yen-show and report to us his execution.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +"The rascal, it was just what he deserved," Wang cried hotly, and Tuen, +her eyes shining like stars, said softly: + +"It seems almost too wonderful to be true." + +"Stranger things happen than have ever been told," Szu replied. "The +affairs of life are past finding out, and who Tên Wang leads must +follow, whether he will or not." + +"This Woo How was very lucky," Tuen murmured. "She must have been loved +by the gods." + +"Ah, I have not yet done speaking of her," Szu answered. "Much yet +remains." + +"How can there be anything to tell after she was married?" Tuen +inquired incredulously. + +"There comes the amazing part," Szu acknowledged. "It happened just as +the Emperor had wished, that his bride proved as wise as she was +beautiful, and soon she was not only beloved, but feared by every one. +In court circles you will find out for yourself that an ounce of fear is +worth a pound of love. When the lovely Woo How discovered this truth she +became a power in the land--but not until then. As she grew older her +beauty decreased, it is true, but her power increased, and on the death +of the Emperor it was this same Woo How who set aside his lawful +successor and became the Empress and sole ruler of this great country." + +"It is but a play you are repeating to me," Tuen cried scornfully. "It +was not and could not be." + +"Youth does not know all things," the old story-teller answered in an +offended tone. "A few gems of thought, a few pearls of knowledge are +reserved for age. That is its compensation. I have repeated to you the +true account of Woo How. That she lived and reigned and died Confucius +has told, therefore I would believe it though the daughters of a +thousand Viceroys should dispute it." + +"Then I was mistaken about it being only a tale if you learned it from +the Sacred Books, Szu," Tuen answered. "But since I know that, I like it +all the better. Now let us hear what else befell this most fortunate +one." + +"Perhaps it would not interest you," he said somewhat sullenly. +"Sufficient be it that being of a strong mind she had long controlled +her husband, and even before his death she it was who in truth ruled the +land. When she had seated herself upon the throne she was so well versed +in the affairs of state that she governed with much discretion and +ability." + +Here the garrulity of the old man gained the mastery over his anger, and +he went on in his usual rapid, animated way: + +"Great was Woo How of the dynasty of Tang. She sent her powerful armies +out to battle, and the enemies fled before them like the birds before +the storm. The proud Thibetans ran like the deer, leaving behind the +unnumbered dead. Thick fell the arrows around them! Loud sounded the +gongs of the hosts! Shrill was the battle-cry and loud the shouts of +victory! + +"And none could stand before the warriors of Woo How. Their journey was +marked by the flames of burning towns, captives followed behind them, +their groanings shaking the earth, when back to the court came the army +of Woo How. Then she marshalled them again, and sent them forth against +the rebellious Khitans, and again did they return with conquering +footsteps, bringing vast treasures and slaves, that reached on, on, like +the waves of the ocean. Peace reigned after this, and prosperity walked +abroad, and after twenty-two glorious years Woo How drove the fairy +chariot and went the long journey." + +When he finished speaking, Wang was loud in her praises of the pleasing +narrative, but Tuen locked her hands around her knees and sat silent, +looking out over the throng of boats around her. Szu waited expectantly +for some remarks and some questions from her, but when she did not +speak, he lit his pipe and smoked away vigorously. + +The afternoon was now drawing to a close. A blue haze crept over the +distant landscape and smoothed out all ugliness, and made the scene soft +and pleasing, and even the incessant cries of the boatmen sounded less +shrill. Tuen got up and walked about on the cramped deck, for she was +weary with long sitting, but she was blind and deaf to all that went on. +Wang was trying to engage Szu in conversation, but he only pulled his +bamboo cap farther over his staring eyes, and did not answer, and +finally, she gave up in despair and went within. After a while, Tuen +came back and, squatting down on a silken cushion beside Szu, said: + +"Could a woman have done what that Woo How did?" + +He removed the pipe from his mouth, and turned his face toward her. + +"The sages have told you so," he replied, shortly. + +"I know that," she said, impatiently, "but what I mean is, could it ever +happen again?" + +He screwed up his mouth, and repressed a smile. + +"As long as women are born it could happen, I suppose, and there is as +yet no dearth of females." + +"You are laughing at me!" she cried, flushing angrily. "I asked you a +civil question. Why should you make sport of me?" + +Now he smiled, openly, at her evident vexation, but he said, gravely: + +"If you are born great, you will be great, no matter if you be man or +woman, no matter when you live or where, but the great ones of earth are +few and far between. Some who were not born great, have, by hard work +and much patience, attained to it. But a woman is usually a stupid +thing, and her head is much too light for climbing." + +"If she were very wise, could she have power, even in the Forbidden +City?" Tuen persisted. + +He nodded. + +"If she were very wise, she would have power, it makes no difference +where she lived. Even on a desert island she would have power over the +wild beasts, for knowledge is power the world over. It is because +females do not possess it that they are weak and of little repute. When +they become wise they will rule the earth, for a man is but clay in the +hands of a skilful woman. She pats him into whatever shape she wants +him." + +"I would like to be wise and great," Tuen said, with a sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +For several days after she had listened to the story of Woo How, Tuen +maintained an unwonted gravity, and was so absorbed in her own thoughts +that she paid but little attention to anything around her. "The poor +child is homesick," Wang muttered, as she watched her, but the girl gave +no indication of the cause of her new mood. Perhaps she could not if she +had tried. Their progress along the Yang-tse-Kiang was slow, and she had +much time for meditation. There was a certain sameness about the +scenery, a monotony about the river-life, and she could almost fancy +that it was the same people, passing and repassing every day. Sometimes +she would hear a boatman singing some familiar air that would carry her +back all the many long miles that separated her from that other life, +that other Tuen, who was now almost a stranger to her, and she would +unconsciously sigh, but she wept no more. The mystic future, heretofore +a blank, seemed now full of untold possibilities, and her active mind +drew many alluring pictures of what it might be. Unknown to herself, she +was merging from a dreaming girl to a clear-headed, determined woman, a +woman of a strong personality, whose influence would be felt in the +world. After all, it is some mere chance that holds a mirror before us +and shows us what we are and what we might be, and to Tuen this vision +had come before it was too late. From this time she would press forward +with that unfailing courage and persistence whose reward is success. The +most diverting sight to her was the fisherman with his cormorants, and +these she never tired of watching. With many a hoarse squawk, the +well-trained birds would dive for their prey, while their masters +shouted cheeringly at them, and happy the bird that came up with a fish +in his mouth. He was pulled into the boat, the iron ring that had +prevented him from feasting upon his prey was removed from his neck, and +a generous handful of bean-curd rewarded his industry. It was amusing to +Tuen to see the excited interest these black-winged birds betrayed in +their own performance, and with what alacrity they went about their +task. + +[Illustration: THE SAIL UP THE RIVER. Page 159.] + +"See, Wang, even a bird can do something!" she cried, one day, as they +passed a flock of these unique fishermen. + +Before Wang had time to answer, there was a splashing sound near by, and +to her horror, Tuen saw the head of a man appear above the water and +then disappear. Although many had witnessed the accident, and it was now +evident that the man could not swim, no one betrayed any excitement, or +made any move toward his rescue. Such is the apathy manifested by these +strange people toward the suffering of others--greatly the result of the +peculiar laws of the country--that they simply watched, with idle +curiosity, for his reappearance, with no thought of offering succor. +Tuen was always quick to act, and in this emergency her wits did not +desert her. Calling aloud to the sailors: "Cash--many strings of +cash--to the one that rescues him," she ran to the side of the vessel. + +Seeing that no one moved she cried, angrily: + +"What, is the reward not great enough? See this ring," holding up a +shining circlet set with an exquisite stone; "this will I give to the +one who will save him." + +At her words, a lad who had been listening to her with a wondering +expression, as if suddenly dazed, sprang quickly overboard and dived +for the drowning man. It was so long before he came to the surface that +Tuen, to whom every second seemed an hour, began to fear that she had +been the cause of a double tragedy, and almost repented of her hasty +act. She gave a gasp of relief when he reappeared, holding fast a +struggling body, and when they had both been pulled into her boat, she +sank down, trembling violently. It turned out that neither was the worse +for his plunge beneath the muddy water, and a sun-bath would soon remove +all trace of the accident. + +When the rescuer stood before her, Tuen said, reprovingly: + +"You have done well, but why must you be bought before you would help +the drowning man?" + +"It is not well to be mixed up in such a case," was his answer. "It +might have been said that it was I who killed him, and we who are wise +and desire to live long in the land keep our hands off our neighbors." + +She uttered an impatient exclamation. + +"I do not understand your reasoning." + +"Neither do the mandarins," he assured her, "when we are hauled up +before them. For that reason they chop off our heads, as that is the +easiest way of settling the difficulty. If he had been drowned, there +would have been a report that I had been the cause of it, and as he +could not have thanked me for my officiousness, and as I could not have +proved that he drowned by himself, since I went to help him----" he +shrugged his shoulders expressively. + +Tuen knit her brows in a puzzled frown, for she knew nothing about the +law, but she said, indifferently: + +"Well, it does not matter, since the man is still alive. Here is the +ring I promised you, and the cash shall be counted out at once. Wang, go +with him." + +But the boy stood staring at her, as if loath to leave, and such +unusual lack of appreciation of cash struck Tuen as marvellous. What a +strange creature he was not to be in a hurry for his money! She looked +at him attentively, and she saw that he was short and very slender, with +a bright, intelligent face, but his water-soaked garments were of the +coarse blue cloth worn by the lower class, and his occupation was +evidently that of a common sailor. Still looking at him, she said, +slowly: + +"Take the ring, and perhaps sometime it will serve you well, for none +can tell what may be." + +The boy bowed gravely, still apparently fascinated by her youth and +beauty. Perhaps it was the admiration she read in his face, perhaps but +an impulse that caused Tuen to ask abruptly: + +"What is your name?" + +"Chang-li," he answered, with another bow, for he had evidently become +impressed with the superiority of this young girl. + +"You may go," she said, with sudden dignity, waving her hand in +dismissal. "I will remember it." + +The boy turned reluctantly away, and as he did so, he did not place the +ring upon his finger, but hid it in his bosom. And when he heard that +this lovely creature was the daughter of a Viceroy who went as a present +to the Emperor, he wondered at her graciousness, and carefully treasured +the ring, although he was offered much money for it, and he was very +poor. + +And one day, many years after, when a proclamation was issued, +commanding one Chang-li, who had been given a ring as a reward for +rescuing a drowning man from the river, to come to court and present +this ring, he had cause to be glad that he had treasured it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The calm monotony of Tuen's life continued uninterrupted after the +episode with the sailor. She would talk with Wang for hours, of the kind +friends she had left in the Viceroy's yâmen, and again of that secluded +court to which she went, concerning which many marvellous stories were +told throughout the land; and at other times she would sit spellbound +for half a day, listening to the long-spun-out stories of blind Szu. +They were now in the Imperial Canal, that stupendous monument of man's +ingenuity, for on account of the work and the time required to complete +them, it and the Great Wall stand unrivalled by any effort of man in any +other part of the world. The waters of the canal were clearer than +those of the great river they had left, but there was the same press of +boats, their number greatly augmented by the many grain-junks that bear +the tribute of rice to Peking. It was also a thrilling experience to +Tuen to see the boats pass the sluices, where the waters raged as if +waiting for something to suck down into their turbulent depths. The +small boats darted through the openings without hindrance, but the +larger ones must get through by a tedious and somewhat dangerous +process, and often it would make Tuen shudder to watch them. The +cumbrous barges would first be dragged forward slowly, by means of ropes +attached to large windlasses and worked from the bank, while against the +sides of the pier were arranged cushions of rope to lighten any shock +received. Thus were the boats carefully let over, so that they could +proceed on their way. When they reached the temple of the Dragon King, +who is the special ruler of the waters, the loud firing of crackers came +from all the boats, while libations were poured out, and many strings of +gilt paper burned in honor of this terrible god of the waters. Tuen, who +was by nature most devout, and stood in wholesome fear of the gods, took +great pleasure in these ceremonies, and lit incense sticks until the +huge porcelain bowl she had selected for this purpose was filled with +ashes. Satisfied with her devotions, she made herself comfortable on +many cushions and sent for Szu to attend her at once. When he had seated +himself, and she waited for him to begin, he pursed up his mouth +reflectively, and then smiled. Perhaps because still somewhat offended +by her doubts of the truthfulness of the narrative of Woo How, or +perchance because he wished her to know that few women had been both +wise and good, he said in a half-scornful way: + +"There is another female whose name is written in history. Would you +like to hear of her?" + +"Very much," Tuen answered, quickly. "Wang, put him in that shady +corner, where the sun will not touch him, and Ta-ta, if you can remain +quiet, you too may stay and listen." + +"No one else has any chance to talk when Szu is around," Ta-ta grumbled. + +The old story-teller turned his face toward her, and asked, scornfully: + +"Who would listen to the babble of a woman? None but a fool, if there +were others talking." + +"I am waiting on you," Tuen interposed, knowing by experience that when +Szu and Ta-ta commenced an interchange of courtesies, the tongues of +both were loosed in a startling manner. + +Szu cleared his throat impressively, and began his narrative by saying: + +"There are no stories worth the telling save those found in the books +of the sages, for it is only the ancients who possessed all goodness and +learning. Therefore when we of this later day wish to know anything we +must turn to them. They have left us all that is necessary for us to +know, and their maxims are the perfect rule of life." + +Having delivered himself of this preamble, he continued: + +"To-day will I tell you the story of Ta-ke the wife of Chow, in proof +that one woman can ruin a nation. It is said that she was beautiful, and +certain it is that the Emperor loved her well, but it is, alas! true +that her heart was base. He built for her a palace, more beautiful than +any ever seen before. It was all of gold and silver and ivory, and the +roof was bright as the sun. He placed within it rich carvings, and +porcelains of queerest shapes, and the most wonderful flowers in all the +earth. And those who made the works of art to adorn her palace were +killed, that the secret might die with them. And women worked from moon +to moon, embroidering the hangings for this stately home erected to +please the fancy of Ta-ke, and the looms throughout the Empire were busy +weaving rich stuffs for her apparel. The choice fruits of the land were +brought to tempt her palate, the daintiest dishes served on golden +platters were put before her, and the sound of music was never hushed in +the palace. With all these things to give her happiness, this, the most +favored of females, was not satisfied, and her cruel nature would not be +lulled to sleep. She loved to see the torture applied to those who had +done no crime, and she laughed and turned away from the prayers that +were addressed to her by the poor and the oppressed of the kingdom. And +Chow, because he listened to her, was likewise cruel and vile. What can +the people hope when they have such rulers? They could only endure and +wait. At last the venerable uncle of this misguided Emperor spoke boldly +to him of his evil ways, that he, being warned, might not continue in +his baseness, and he told him how the subjects cried out in their just +anger against him. Very wroth was Chow with his aged relative, and, +going to Ta-ke, he repeated to her the words of reproof to which he had +been forced to listen. When he had finished she only laughed in a +mocking way. + +"'True he is wondrous wise,' she cried. 'His heart must be made in a +different pattern from that of his countrymen, to hold so much +knowledge. Methinks I should like to have it cut from his body that I +might gaze upon it and see wherein the heart of a sage differs from that +of other men.' + +"'And you shall see it before the sun sets,' the besotted sovereign +cried, and turning to an attendant he gave orders that at once the heart +of this good man should be brought to Ta-ke. These and many other wicked +things she did, until the people scarce could breathe, so full were they +of hate of her. Then a deliverer was found, and the brave Woo Wang came +to save the country. With the noise of drum, and amid the swift-falling +arrows that carried death where'er they fell, he marched on the +resplendent capital of Chow, and the down-trodden people ran forward to +welcome him and gladly followed him, until his hosts were far-extending +as the clouds. When Chow heard this he went out to marshal his armies +that he might repulse these valiant men, but not one was found to wield +the bow and arrow in behalf of his Emperor, for all were making ready to +greet the good Woo Wang. Already he heard the tramp of the oncoming +throng and the victorious shouting of the warriors, and knew his doom +had come, for none would strike a blow to save this tyrant. Quickly he +went to the inner room of his palace, arrayed himself in his most +magnificent apparel, and donned his tunic of golden brocade, as if to +give audience to some mighty prince, and making himself a throne of his +most costly possessions he mounted it, and with his own hand touched it +with a torch. So perished Chow, and thus was destroyed that most +magnificent palace, the wonder of the land. Ta-ke watched him calmly as +he made these final preparations, and she shed no tears, for her heart +was busy forming a plan where by she might save herself from the wrath +of Woo Wang. When she saw the flames burst forth, she ran with all the +haste that terror lends away from the fatal spot, and even as she ran +she met the great Woo Wang coming with his soldiers to take possession +of the palace, and she cast herself at his feet. + +"'It is the hated Empress,' the people cried angrily, groaning as they +spoke, and when he heard this Woo Wang waited not, but with his own hand +severed the head of the base Ta-ke from her body, that she might not +longer live to curse the land; and all the multitude raised a loud shout +of joy." + +"That's a very ugly tale," Ta-ta exclaimed, stifling a yawn as she +spoke. "It was nothing but kill--kill--kill." + +"You gave us the best first," Wang said, as she rose to go, but Tuen +made no comment of any kind. Side by side she stored these two stories +in her mind, and never did she forget them. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Stately her person, tall and fair, + Clad in her robes embroidered and plain + Fingers as softest buds that grow, + Skin as an unguent firm and white, + Neck as the tree worm's breed, + Mantis front and the silk moth's brow, + Dimples playing in witching smile, + Beautiful eyes, so dark and bright! + Stately in person, proud and free, + Screened by her plumes, then to court comes she. + + _Chinese Song._ + + +All things, even a journey from Lu Chang to Peking, must end some day, +and Tuen's heart was leaping wildly, when after the long, tedious months +upon the water she at last found herself seated in a sedan, entering the +great outer wall of the capital city. Mechanically she kept repeating +Szu's parting words: "A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as +water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it," but she merely did +this because she must do something to keep her courage up, and not +because she found any wisdom or any consolation in the proverb. + +As in all places in China she saw a multitude of people about her, +through which the chair bearers made their way with loud cries of _Lai! +Lai!_ (Clear the way! Clear the way!) Now they met some high mandarin, +surrounded by numerous attendants, who looked haughtily out from his +sedan window at the mass of humanity about him, and next would come a +bride in her gilded chair, hung with garlands of flowers, while behind +her followed relations, attendants and servants bearing the wedding +gifts, and beating loud tom-toms, and above the sound of kettle-drum and +fire-crackers resounded the wild wailing of the bride who went to the +husband she had never seen. Elaborately carved portals, on whose top +the dragon writhed in many a curve, spanned the wide streets; stores +filled with tempting wares opened before the passers-by, their tall +signs gay with bright-colored letters and hung with fluttering flags; +and quaint little houses, painted in blue and green and gold, almost +toppled over each other in the struggle for space. The streets were the +home of a mighty throng. The Mohammedan, conspicuous in his red cap, +touched elbows with the strongly marked Hebrew; the money-seller, with +his long string of cash, weighed cautiously the coins brought him to +change; the barber deftly shaved the head of his customer who was +perched on a three-legged stool, in constant danger of being jostled by +a hurried pedestrian; the cook took the long pole from his shoulders, +and unloading the utensils from his movable kitchen, prepared food to +tempt the lookers-on; the cobbler squatted by the wayside mending +shoes; fortune-tellers waited for the curious; the dentist, with his +necklace of shining teeth as proof of skill and customers, importuned +the sufferers; the travelling blacksmith, with his implements beside +him, solicited trade; jugglers performed various feats in return for the +coins thrown them and delighted an ever-changing audience; and +book-sellers, tinkers, druggists, musicians, razor-grinders, and pedlers +of every description, cried out their wares as they went on their +endless peregrinations. Wheel-barrows filled with vegetables and +dromedaries bearing coal from Tartary were followed by a funeral +procession, the mourners, arrayed in pure white, walking behind the +gayly painted casket; and so the great population, shouting, laughing, +gesticulating, surged and swelled, and the round of life was ever the +same. + +Tuen was very glad when she had made her way through all this din and +tumult and come to the second wall, the wall of the imperial city, +where the yellow-tiled roofs shone like gold in the sunshine. In the +distance could be seen King Shan, the Artificial Mountain, its five +summits topped with beautiful pavilions. Trees of every kind clustered +at its base, while through the foliage, now rich in autumn colors, +glistened the water of a silvery lake, and the gleaming roof of the +Temple of Great Happiness. Tuen had only a confused idea of this +beautiful panorama, for now they had reached the third wall which +encircles the Prohibited City--the home of the Son of Heaven. She had +often heard how all within this closely guarded enclosure was gold and +silver, so brilliant and so gorgeous that it dazzled the beholder, and +her little bias eyes were open very wide behind the curtains of her +sedan as she peeped cautiously out. The guards in the tower above the +Meridian Gate hastened to open it on her approach, for her sedan was +hung with yellow, the imperial color. She was borne over pleasant +streams, spanned with bridges of sculptured marble, through courts where +fountains played and flowers bloomed, and through splendid gilded +corridors. Gate after gate of elaborately carved marble opened as if by +magic at her approach and then quickly closed again, for she who enters +here goes out no more. The magnificent Gate of Extensive Peace shut with +a loud clang behind her, but she heard it not, for now she was being +carried through beautiful walks with stately bronze figures on either +side, past temples and pavilions and palaces, even past that most sacred +and superb of all the buildings, the Tranquil Palace, with its tower of +burnished copper adorned with images that seemed made of gold. Tuen had +never pictured anything so lovely, so enchanting. The Viceroy's yâmen +dwindled into insignificance before all this grandeur, and she felt +like a veritable beggar maid brought to a king. And just as she was +beginning to think that it must all be some enchanted dream from which +she would soon awake, the chair-bearers stopped in front of the Palace +of Earth's Repose, which is the royal harem, and the last gate closed +between her and all the world. + +News travels very slowly through all the many gates that guard the +Emperor from his subjects, and what goes on in the Forbidden City is a +secret to the rest of the Empire. But sometimes, even from that +jealously watched home of royalty, rumors creep abroad, and are +whispered from mouth to mouth, for gossip will not be quiet, even though +you cut out its tongue. Someway it became noised abroad after a while +that Tuen, the maiden from Lu Chang, was the favorite wife of the +Emperor, and second only to the Empress herself. Then nothing more was +known until it was announced that the Empress was dead, and after a +while through the many gates crept the news that Tuen had become the +royal consort. + +Again there was silence, then at last the Emperor was gathered to his +fathers, and Tuen, the little slave girl, during the infancy of her son, +became Empress of all China, and ruler over one third of the population +of the world. Thus does Fate shift the figures in the game of life. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +It was a crisp, chill November afternoon, with just a hint of frost in +the air that made it bracing. Milky clouds dimmed the intense blue of +the heavens, an occasional gust of wind tore off bright-hued leaves from +the trees and tossed them gayly about, and already the grass was turning +brown. But in the imperial Flower Garden there was as yet no sign of +fading flowers or winter bareness, and as the Empress Tuen came out into +it, attended by richly apparelled ladies of the court, and followed by +slaves and eunuchs, she saw only a scene of beauty. She too was in the +autumn of life now. Her eyes no longer sparkled with the fire of youth, +her cheeks, once pink as a lotus bloom, were now marked by the cruel +furrows of time, and her figure had lost its girlish grace many a year +ago, for to-day was her sixtieth birthday. The day was to have been +celebrated throughout the Empire with a lavish magnificence that would +render it the greatest event in Chinese history for many centuries, for +her loyal subjects had planned to render fitting honor to this +remarkable woman. The streets for ten miles were to have been covered +with rich carpets and decorated with lamps and pictures, and the rarest +wares--porcelains, bronzes, jade, and silver--were to have been arranged +along this gorgeous avenue. But the inglorious war with Japan had so +heavily taxed the people that, at the request of the Empress, these +elaborate preparations had been abandoned, though many costly presents +had been sent her from every province. Now, weary of gifts and +adulation, she wished to be alone, to rest for a time from the affairs +of state. With a gesture all the attendants were dismissed, and she sat +down in the massive stone chair on the bank of the placid Lake of +Dreams. There was no more beautiful spot to be found in all the land +than this Flower Garden where the Empress, when she tired of her gilded +prison, came for a breath of outer air. It was adorned with graceful +pavilions, temples, groves, and lakes, and many Emperors had exhausted +the skill and ingenuity of the landscape gardeners of the realm in an +endeavor to make this little park enchanting enough to beguile away the +tedium of the days of "Heaven's Consort," as the Empress was styled. +Flowers of every hue bloomed here; sparkling streams dashed down the +sides of artificial mountains and wound like a silver ribbon among the +flowers, their waters spanned here and there by quaintly carved marble +bridges; the musical splashing of the fountains could be heard through +the stillness; half hid away under moss-covered rocks were dark, quiet +pools where the lilies loved to bloom; stone grottoes nestled among the +trees and overhanging vines, and shrubs cut into likenesses of lions, +tigers, giraffes, elephants, and horses, grew beside the walks. In the +distance the gilded roof of the Hall of Perfect Peace shone like a +beacon, and the sun touched the burnished tower before the Tranquil +Palace and transformed it into a pillar of fire, and then fell upon the +top of the marble Gate of Extensive Peace, and lo, it seemed made of +pearl and ivory. But to-day the Empress paid but slight attention to +these glories of the capital, for her mind was filled with painful +thoughts. Day by day dire reports came from the scene of war of the +havoc wrought among her soldiers, and disgraceful accounts of defeat +that made her blood boil. She had prayed unto the gods and offered +sacrifices unto them, and for many days she had burned incense on +the altar of the God of War, but alas! the gods were deaf, and +ruin threatened her kingdom. Her son, the Emperor, was weak and +characterless, and for a long time she had been the true head of the +vast Empire. In executive ability and knowledge of statecraft foreigners +had compared her to Catherine the Great of Russia, for her wisdom and +keen insight into governmental affairs had been talked of in every court +in Europe. Greater than Emperor and cabinet officers, shrewder than even +Li Hung Chang, was this old Empress, who had placed crowns on several +brows, and who was the creator of viceroys and state policy. Neither had +she forgotten from whence she came, or neglected to reward any who had +served her well. In the first hour of her independence and power she +caused search to be made for her father and mother, only to learn that +they had been long dead, but upon her brother she had heaped the most +distinguished honors. Nor had she failed to compensate the Viceroy of Lu +Chang for all his kindness to her, and all over the land the +story-tellers loved to relate the wonderful history of Tuen, the little +slave girl, who was now their beloved Empress. + +But now as she sat alone in the garden she was very sorrowful. She had +hoped that Li Hung Chang would be able to stir up the patriotism of her +subjects and inflame them with martial ardor, but he had been powerless +to avert the shame of defeat--defeat at the hands of a little patriotic, +plucky nation that she could have put in one of her provinces--a defeat +that was the saddest blot on the annals of her people. Oh, it was +infamous! She clenched her hands until her many rings cut into the +tender flesh, as she inwardly chafed and raged at her own helplessness. +Her meditations were at last interrupted by the approach of a eunuch, +and she threw back her head and regarded him angrily, impatient that he +should have dared to intrude on her solitude. Three times did he humbly +bow, then, kneeling before her, knock his head nine times upon the +ground before he spoke. + +"A gift has arrived for the Empress and awaits her acceptance." + +She motioned him haughtily away, but his curiosity was so much excited +that he still further dared the royal displeasure. + +"It is a very strange thing," he ventured. "Nothing like it has ever +been sent before, for it is said to come from the barbarians here who +teach the 'Jesus doctrine.'" + +"Let it be brought to me here," she said listlessly, although she arched +her brows in amazement. + +Quickly he went away, and in his stead came the ladies of the court, +bearing a teak-wood box. At a sign from the Empress it was opened and +disclosed a beautifully wrought silver casket. With her own hand she +raised the lid of this casket, wondering what jewel or article of +priceless value these strangers had sent her, while the ladies of the +court peeped eagerly over her shoulders. But what she saw when the lid +fell back was a book, whose covers were of solid silver embossed in +bamboo designs, while in one corner in shining letters of gold were the +strange words: "Complete New Testament," and in the centre of this +remarkable book was a plate of gold upon which was engraved: "Scriptures +for the Salvation of the World." + +Then she looked again at the casket, and on the lid she read that this +book was a present from the Christian women of China, and she marvelled +greatly, but she said nothing. + +Thus was the Holy Bible placed even on the Dragon's Throne, and then +once again the gates of the Forbidden City closed, and all was silence. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58369 *** |