07 
 
 Cornell Mnmeratty ffiihtarg 
 
 Strata, 3X>ro Uork 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 6023.19109 
 
 Out in China!/ 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023399151 
 
&/7*^??l^a^lAS 
 
 / 
 
 % 
 
 OUT IN CHINA! 
 
OUT IN CHINA! 
 
 J> 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. ARCHIBALD LITTLE 
 
 " Man and his littleness perish erased like an error and cancelled 
 Man and his greatness survive, lost in thefgreatness of God." 
 
 William Watson. 
 
 !!Lonfcon 
 
 ANTHONY TREHERNE & CO., Ltd. 
 3 Agar Street, W.C. 
 
 1902 
 
 c. 
 
QUr«. t&tvtvtfy (genricfie, 
 
 MY VERY DEAR FRIEND AND SISTER-IN-LAW, 
 
 TO WHOSE ENERGETIC SYMFATHY 
 
 NO TRAGEDY EVER APPEALS IN VAIN, 
 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK 
 
 IS VERY LOVINGLY DEDICATED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. His Men Friends in China g 
 
 II. Her Aunt and Sisters at Home 16 
 
 III. Changing Life's Setting - 24 
 
 IV. The Bride's Home Coming 39 
 
 V. Vain Questionings - 47 
 VI. The Ball at the Consulate - - 55 
 
 VII. How They Talked in England 64 
 
 VIII. What They Said in China- - - 70 
 
 IX. Who Cares About China - - 81 
 
 X. Planning the Picnic ... 86 
 
 XI. Gaily ! Gaily ! - - 92 
 XII. Face to Face with Reality - 109 
 
 XIII. Two on One Horse - - - 124 
 
 XIV. Alone Together - 132 
 XV. The Rescue Party - 137 
 
 XVI. What! Another Picnic! - - - 151 
 
 XVII. The Recognition - 157 
 
 XVIII. Afterwards - - - - 170 
 
Out in China 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HIS MEN FRIENDS IN CHINA 
 
 " He is such a really good fellow," said 
 Forbes, an Outport Consul, in Shanghai for 
 a holiday, though nominally to consult the 
 dentist. 
 
 It was that hour of the morning when men 
 are apt to wax affectionate, but it was his 
 being such a warm friend made James Forbes 
 so much liked, far more than his cleverness. 
 " One would not like to think of Lindsay 
 having his life spoilt," he went on. 
 
 " But why should it be spoilt ? You say 
 the girl is young, pretty, with something 
 distinctive about her." 
 
 '' Something decidedly distinctive about 
 her," said Forbes musingly ; then looking up 
 and speaking rapidly, " But Lindsay did not 
 
io Out in China 
 
 like the look of her. He was bitterly dis- 
 appointed in something. I could not help 
 seeing that, just as I turned to him full of 
 congratulations, for I was greatly taken with 
 his bride's appearance myself. If I were to 
 fall in love that is the kind of girl I should 
 fall in love with, I think. But as I looked 
 round at Lindsay, he, who had been so 
 nervous, had suddenly become calm as a 
 frozen pool, expressionless as the Sphinx, and 
 ' Can I help you with your luggage ? ' was 
 the sentence with which he greeted the 
 woman, who is to be his wife to-morrow. It 
 seems odd if you think of it," and he gave a 
 little, short laugh, "makes one think of the 
 boy who asked ' Why should a woman be so 
 fond of her husband ? He is no relation. 
 Just a man she has picked up somewhere.' " 
 
 They all laughed, screamed with laughter, 
 and ' Was the boy genuine ? Did Forbes 
 know him ? ' Then one of them said gravely, 
 " But Lindsay hasn't picked up this girl 
 just anywhere. He knew her before. He 
 has known her for years in England. He 
 told me so himself." 
 
 " I know. That's the oddest part of the 
 story." 
 
 " Why so ? I don't see anything odd about 
 it. Odder to marry a girl you don't know, I 
 should say." 
 
 " God bless my soul, don't you see — don't 
 you understand ? The girl is young, quite 
 
His Mai Friends in China 1 1 
 
 young. Old Lindsay has been hoaxing us 
 all, or else he knew her in the shortest of 
 short frocks, coral necklace and all. No ! he 
 has married her by advertisement, and didn't 
 want us to know. He didn't know her from 
 Adam and was taken all aback by her ap- 
 pearance." 
 
 "Why, he told me all about her," growled 
 rather than spoke another man, "talked to 
 me by the hour as to whether it were wise or 
 not, had known her intimately years ago — 
 very intimately — never happened to meet 
 again, had corresponded for two years now, 
 found in her all the same qualities he had 
 always fancied she possessed, regretted only 
 he had not made up his mind sooner, when 
 
 they were both younger " 
 
 " She could not well be much younger." 
 " She had grey eyes and a slight figure." 
 " She certainly has grey eyes and is slight." 
 "Well — well! a trick of arching her eye- 
 brows with a little curve in them, when 
 troubled." 
 
 " I noticed it." 
 
 " And then in the name of thunder what do 
 you mean by starting a cock and bull story, 
 that Lindsay, the man we all know, the soul 
 of honour, the most refined of men, has told 
 us all a pack of lies, and married by advertise- 
 ment ! Did she look the kind of girl to have 
 dealings with the Matrimonial News ? " 
 " No — No — No ! " each No louder than the 
 
12 Out in China 
 
 last." That she emphatically did not. That 
 could never be. But, good Heavens, my 
 
 dear fellow, don't you see — don't you see " 
 
 " I must confess I do not unless that you, 
 like a thundering fool, have gone and lost 
 your heart at first sight to the girl your friend 
 is going to marry, and so out of your own 
 infernal wrongheadedness you fancy Lindsay 
 did not like the looks of a woman he has 
 been in love with for ten years, and whom he 
 described so accurately that even you agree 
 to the truth of his description. The most 
 sensitive of men, naturally Lindsay tried to 
 seem impassive before strangers. The posi- 
 tion was an embarrassing one for both. 
 They have not met since ten years ago, she 
 is to marry him to-morrow, and by his own 
 account is shy and apprehensive almost to 
 the point of being morbid. Lindsay himself 
 has been in a perfect fever of anxiety as to 
 whether he is making a great mistake — asking 
 too great a sacrifice of her and so on. Pah ! 
 What fools men are ! But let us, his friends, 
 at least not make it more awkward for two 
 people, who probably anyhow will find a 
 certain amount of difficulty about coming to- 
 gether. On the whole I think he is acting 
 very rationally, and I told him so. The lady 
 has had sufficient experience of life to know 
 her own mind, to have resources in herself, 
 so that the dulness of up-country life should 
 not try her, as it does some women. Her 
 
His Men Friends in China 13 
 
 constitution is probably sufficiently seasoned 
 to stand the climate. — Now, what the devil 
 are you thinking of? " he broke off, observing 
 the other's expression. 
 
 "I'm thinking it is very late — early — late, 
 and that, as we are not to be married we may 
 as well go to bed," said Forbes. Then, as 
 the two walked away together, he passed his 
 arm through that of Lester, known as the 
 most good-natured man in all Shanghai : 
 " Don't think I don't agree with every word 
 you have been saying. And so I didn't 
 answer you before those other fellows, but the 
 girl who has come out to marry Lindsay, 
 Miss Winifred Ellerslie, cannot be over 
 twenty-two, if she is as much. So what be- 
 comes of all the story he has been telling us 
 all, and talking over so earnestly all these 
 weeks, about how he knew her, and all but 
 offered ten years ago ! " 
 
 " Are you sure ? " 
 
 " As sure as that Lindsay was surprised — 
 and not agreeably — when he saw her." 
 
 " Lindsay is a very sensitive fellow," said 
 the other musingly. " How did the girl 
 look ? Perhaps he saw something in her eyes 
 on greeting him — that — that " 
 
 " Well, she looked a little scared, the curve 
 in the eyebrows very perceptible. She 
 looked a little like a girl awaking from a 
 dream." 
 
 " Awaking from a dream ! " The Scotch- 
 
14 Out in China 
 
 man spoke slowly — then after a long pause 
 with conviction, " Yes, that's what we all 
 do. That's marriage. Well ! God help 
 poor Lindsay if he has made a mistake, and 
 is marrying the wrong woman, There isn't 
 the man born who would feel it more. But 
 he'll never let her know." 
 
 " Let her know ! That girl will hear it in 
 every tone of his voice, feel it in every glance 
 of his eye — " 
 
 " My dear Forbes, you certainly " 
 
 " Well, I never saw a girl like her, or so 
 like my ideal, I'll own that much." 
 "That's just what Lindsay said." 
 "Did he really? Why should he have 
 looked disappointed then ? " 
 
 " It must have been your fancy." 
 " Well — perhaps it was my fancy. Good- 
 night." 
 
 " Good-night, and don't dream of the 
 bride." 
 
 With a parting smile the Scotchman 
 turned under the somewhat gloomy portals 
 of a stately Hong upon the Bund. Next day 
 he as well as Forbes was present as a witness 
 at the wedding, and he thought Forbes must 
 have been mistaken. Lindsay's behaviour as 
 a bridegroom was perfect, so evidently full of 
 consideration for his bride. As for her she 
 appeared absorbed in the ceremony, but it 
 was not an unbecoming absorption, and 
 though she accepted his attentions shyly, she 
 
His Men Friends in China 15 
 
 was yet apparently not unpleased. There 
 was however one matter about which he saw 
 Forbes had certainly not been mistaken, the 
 bride was not twenty-two. She was not 
 twenty even. She wore a little grey silk 
 going away dress rather than bridal gown, 
 and a little grey silk bonnet drawn in an old- 
 fashioned style. The very staidness of the 
 dress made her look younger than ever, and 
 her shy glances at the bridegroom had a dewy 
 freshness about them, that spoke her de- 
 finitely under twenty. Had Lindsay then 
 been inventing, imposing upon them ? With 
 the recollection of his manner, and knowing 
 the man intimately as he did, even Forbes 
 could not believe this, so he disposed of the 
 matter for the present as a mystery to which 
 he had no clue, only every now and then 
 recalling with extreme pain Lindsay's quick 
 assumption of impenetrability and his ex- 
 pressionless face as a friendly fellow passenger 
 said to him : " There ! that is Miss Winifred 
 Ellerslie." Why it should give himself so 
 much pain he never paused to consider. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 HER AUNT AND SISTERS AT HOME 
 
 "Miss Winifred Ellerslie!' For you, 
 Winnie ! Oh ! how provoking, nothing for 
 me ! And I did hope I was going to get 
 that situation at last," so spoke Millicent, a 
 certified teacher. 
 
 " Well, give me another cup of tea before 
 you read it. I must be off," said Agatha, 
 in the Post Office. 
 
 " Here, my dear, put these scones in your 
 pocket." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, auntie, that will be nice. 
 I wish I were not always so hungry," and 
 she ran away laughing and waving adieux 
 to them all. 
 
 " Here, Millicent ! it came enclosed to me, 
 ' Miss Ellerslie,' you see. They have written 
 to me to ask about you, and as I certainly 
 can answer all their questions satisfactorily, 
 I think you have got the appointment, my 
 dear, and I am so glad." A shower of soft 
 
Her Aunt and Sisters at Home 1 7 
 
 kisses from the elder Miss Ellerslie, under 
 which Millicent blushed with pleasure. 
 
 "Well, that is a good thing. Now, I'm 
 fairly off your hands, auntie, and may expect 
 to be self-supporting for the rest of my life — 
 bar accidents. Agatha too, I think, is sure 
 to get on. But Winifred — now don't look 
 at that letter from your stupid old Chinese 
 admirer, for I want to talk to you seriously. 
 You are stronger now. You know you are ! 
 And what do you mean to do ? " 
 
 " Oh, my dear, don't hurry Winnie, I am 
 very glad to keep her with me. And she 
 shrinks from " 
 
 Winifred coloured and drew long breaths. 
 " It is that, auntie, it is that. Millicent 
 thinks I am idle. I am not idle " 
 
 " No, no ! I am sure you are not." 
 
 " But to go out amongst strangers, as you 
 do ! Where no one cares a thing for you ! " 
 and the tears streamed down her cheeks. 
 
 "Well, I know all about that," said Milli- 
 cent quietly, whilst the elder lady dried 
 Winifred's tears. " And if I could support 
 you, I would. But you know I can't, and 
 auntie's money dies with her. But though 
 you say you are not idle " 
 
 Meanwhile Winifred's eyes had been 
 caught by certain words in the letter, which 
 she had already opened, before Millicent 
 began her lecture. Oh, auntie ! auntie ! " 
 she exclaimed. " He asks me to go out to 
 
1 8 Ottt in China 
 
 China to live with him. And he could not 
 do it more nicely." 
 
 Then they all read the letter. " It is very 
 nicely put," said Millicent gravely. 
 
 "Are you sure, my dear, this letter is 
 meant for you ? " asked Miss Ellerslie hesi- 
 tatingly. 
 
 "Why, auntie, I've been corresponding 
 with him for a year and more — for a year 
 regularly. And he gave me this watch, and 
 — why, what an odd thing to ask, auntie ! 
 How could there possibly be any mistake ? 
 He always writes in that style about me, so 
 respectfully, as if he valued my opinions so 
 much. And is it not nicely worded now ? 
 Quite different from other men ! I am sure 
 he is. And I should love to go to China. 
 Margery Stafford married and went out to 
 India. But China is further off still. And 
 then to go out to marry a man you don't 
 really know — for of course it is a long time 
 since I have seen him, and I don't remember 
 him very well. I was only a child then. I 
 recollect I kissed him," and she grew crimson 
 all over, "and I'd like to do it again now ! " 
 
 Then there was nothing more to be said. 
 And they began to buy the trousseau, or 
 rather to make it. The elder Miss Ellerslie 
 stitched and stitched day after day, whilst 
 the younger Winifred fully earned her title 
 of idle by the way she fell into reveries, and 
 dropped her needle, dreaming of her future 
 
Her Aunt and Sisters at Home 19 
 
 husband, and that strange, unknown China. 
 But Millicent even did not scold her, for 
 was not Winnie going to be married, and 
 was it not such a comfort ! for the pretty, 
 delicate, indulged youngest child could never 
 have made her living, as even Millicent now 
 admitted to herself. Only Agatha, the post 
 office girl, made them all laugh by saying 
 she did not attach as much importance to 
 letters as they did, and she should prefer a 
 husband asking her in real flesh and blood. 
 
 "Just think if when he sees you he does 
 not like you, Winnie. You were nothing 
 but a child you know, when he saw you, and 
 you're such a great tall girl now." 
 
 " I'm much prettier now than I was then," 
 said Winnie stoutly. 
 
 " Oh yes, you're pretty. But he mayn't 
 like your kind of prettiness," persisted 
 Agatha. " Now I'd much rather marry 
 Millicent than you, yet Millicent is downright 
 plain. I don't think you'll make much of a 
 wife, Winnie." 
 
 'Winnie will do her best, dear," said the 
 aunt tenderly, " Don't discourage her. De- 
 pend upon it her heart shrinks enough, when 
 she thinks of the long voyage and the un- 
 known life before her. Mr. Lindsay is a 
 good man, a really good man, or I would not 
 have heard of it. And when people love 
 each other " — Then curiously enough the 
 elder Miss Ellerslie's voice broke down, and 
 
20 Out in China 
 
 she hurried away. Oh ! how often her eyes 
 had been blinded by tears, as she stitched at 
 the dainty fineries she herself insisted upon 
 for her niece ! 
 
 " Yes, but do they ? That's what I want 
 to know," persisted Agatha. " Don't you 
 think, Winnie, that you're going to China 
 because you couldn't get into the Post Office, 
 and " 
 
 " I'm going to China because Mr. Lindsay 
 loves me and writes for me — for his wife, not 
 just because I am pretty — because he doesn't 
 know it, I never would send him even a 
 photograph, because I didn't want him to be 
 influenced by that. He likes my thoughts 
 and feelings — myself. And I like his ! I 
 think he is a real man, not good looking per- 
 haps. He'd never do for a hair dresser's-doll, 
 I'm sure. But he has a beautiful soul, and he 
 is a brave, and kind and chivalrous gentle- 
 man, and clever too, though like so many 
 men he makes believe he is not, and does 
 not care for clever things. But / know he 
 does," with a proud emphasis upon the " I." 
 
 " You are quite right in all you say of Mr. 
 Lindsay, dearest. I knew him as a boy, and 
 he is all — all you say." 
 
 " Did you know him, auntie ?" 
 
 " Why Winnie, auntie has told you so 
 before. Why is it, you never take things 
 in ? You are always dreaming. Auntie 
 knew him very well — very well indeed, much 
 
Her Aunt and Sisters at Hotne 21 
 
 better than you, who never saw him but once 
 or twice, when you were a stupid, lanky 
 child, and jumped up and kissed him without 
 his ever asking you." 
 
 "Well, you must own, Agatha, he has 
 asked me now to be his wife." 
 
 " Yes — I know he has," grumbled Agatha. 
 " But he'd much better have asked auntie. 
 That is what he ought to have done, if he 
 cared about being happy. And he must be 
 an old stupid to have asked you and not 
 auntie after knowing you both." 
 
 " Don't, Agatha, don't," cried the elder 
 Miss Ellerslie, putting her arms round Wini- 
 fred, kissing her, and then retiring as she so 
 often did now with her eyes welling over 
 with tears, so that only as she left the room 
 she heard the Post Office girl's last shot : 
 
 " How do you know the letter was meant 
 for you ? Any of the letters, I mean ? 
 You're both Miss Winifred Ellerslie." 
 
 " But, Agatha, auntie is always called Miss 
 Ellerslie. And he wrote first condoling 
 upon papa's death, and asking whom I lived 
 with now and all. And I answered about 
 the watch he gave me. I did just wonder a 
 little at first how such a grave sort of senti- 
 mental letter could really be for me, but I 
 did not ask auntie about it, because I like to 
 be guided by my own judgment. I think it 
 is only right in all difficult cases. I never 
 even asked auntie about going to China and 
 
22 Out in China 
 
 all. I don't think one ought to cast the 
 burden of decision upon other people," and 
 she drew up her slight, girlish figure to its 
 full height, "especially not upon poor, dear 
 auntie, who always finds it so difficult to 
 decide even in the smallest things. And 
 now, how can you, you wicked sister, start 
 such a dreadful idea, as if there could pos- 
 sibly have been any mistake, and when it is 
 too late to change, and I am just going 
 away — for ever ! " 
 
 " For ever ! As if you were going to die. 
 You'll come back from China, it is not another 
 world. Letters are always going backwards 
 and forwards every day — at least every week. 
 But I'm very sorry Winnie, dear, and I did 
 not really mean it — not really. Only — only 
 it does seem so awfully nice to be going 
 all that long way off, and to marry a 
 man auntie and all say is so delightful, 
 and to have a fine house of your own, and 
 plenty of servants — a good position — even 
 a Hong all of your own ! and everybody 
 adoring you, when I'm only a Post 
 Office girl ! Boo — boo — hoo ! And I have 
 worked so hard too, and am just as 
 pretty." 
 
 Then the two sisters wept in each other's 
 arms with " I know you are," and " I know 
 you have," from Winifred. " So hard ! poor, 
 dear Agatha," together with assurances that 
 she would get a delightful husband of her 
 
Her Aunt and Sisters at Home 23 
 
 own some day, young and handsome, who'd 
 adore her. 
 
 " But he'll be as poor as a church mouse. 
 I know he will," said Agatha. " I've never 
 known a young man yet, who had any money 
 at all, while you're marrying into an assured 
 position and a competence and all. So you 
 must not be surprised if it makes me mad 
 with jealousy at times, Winnie. And seri- 
 ously you know, a man expects a great deal 
 of his wife, and I believe the climate is horrid, 
 and you'll have no old friends there. So if 
 you don't make up your mind to be cheerful 
 and pleased with him and everything, it 
 won't turn out well in the end. You must 
 not rely too much upon his love. You think 
 I'm very young — but I know you must not 
 — not on a man's love. You must make up 
 your mind to be sensible and nice whatever 
 happens, or you'd much better not go." 
 
 " I go relying on his love," said Winifred 
 with a far away look in her fine grey eyes, 
 "and I mean to love him so that he shall be 
 quite lapped round with love and notice no- 
 thing beyond." 
 
 " Some men wouldn't like that at all," per- 
 sisted the Post Office girl. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CHANGING LIFE'S SETTING 
 
 And so it came about that when Hugh Lind- 
 say went down to the Tender, and someone 
 he knew among the passengers said to him, 
 " There that is Miss Ellerslie, standing beside 
 the Captain," a sudden change came over 
 his face, which for the moment grew quite 
 grey. In the rush and confusion only Forbes 
 close beside him knew that anything had 
 happened, and even he did not catch Lind- 
 say's muttered "Good God!" After which 
 he went forward a little white perhaps, with 
 a sort of glisten about the eyes, but a smile 
 round the mouth. " Can I help you with 
 your luggage ? You have had a good voyage, 
 I am glad to hear ! " 
 
 And next morning they were married. 
 
 " What on earth possessed old Lindsay to 
 talk of having known his future bride ever so 
 many years ago ! Leading us to suppose it 
 was some lady advanced in years ! And then 
 
Changing Lifes Setting 25 
 
 to spring upon us this beautiful young thing ! " 
 men wondered aloud. Sometimes to women. 
 Women were somewhat silent when they did 
 so. For one thing they did not think the new 
 bride so beautiful as the men did, somewhat 
 wanting in colour, and no style at all as they 
 said among themselves. They did not think 
 she would go down in Shanghai, and wondered 
 what men found so interesting in her. Any- 
 way she was not destined for Shanghai 
 society and, after a very few days there, pro- 
 ceeded with her husband to his home in one 
 of the prettiest of China's outports. 
 
 Thus Lindsay, the fastidious, with a some- 
 what overstrained sense of honour — who had 
 already found the daily friction of life too 
 much for him, and had expected hence- 
 forward to wear a woman's tenderness and 
 ready sympathy as a protecting mantle 
 between him and the outside world, who had 
 hoped to have all the little practical worries, 
 the petites miseres of life smoothed away 
 for him by soft but skilful fingers that he 
 knew of old, who had been telling himself 
 day after day, and his friends too for the last 
 six months that the arrangement was a wise 
 and prudent one ; yet knowing himself all 
 the while most foolishly and senselessly 
 thrilling over recollections of those same little, 
 clinging but firm fingers held tight in his 
 years ago, over the phantasy of soft rings of 
 hair stroked by him into shape, over the 
 
26 Out in China 
 
 timid glance of eyes that surely ever so many 
 intervening years could not have hardened, 
 and that he never had seen look otherwise 
 than kindly on everyone and everything — 
 Lindsay found himself all upon a sudden 
 confronted with a young, slight girl, trembling 
 like himself with susceptibilities, full of un- 
 spoken but none the less exorbitant demands, 
 and hard with the unsoftened edges of her 
 youthful inexperience. This young girl with 
 the dewy, upward glance pleaded in her 
 every movement for the whole souled love and 
 devotion of a man neither absorbed in 
 another nor in himself. Frank and free her- 
 self, she must, he felt, from the outset, intui- 
 tively discern a counterfeit. And he knew 
 from the first moment that he laid his hand 
 upon hers caressingly, and her eyes met his 
 for the fiftieth part of a second or rather less, 
 and her hand at once slipped away, that 
 neither now nor ever could he appear any- 
 thing but counterfeit to her. For she had 
 arrived in China, ready — nay longing to give 
 her whole heart to a whole hearted man. 
 Whilst he — was making believe ! It was all 
 he could do for her, poor man ! and he did it 
 conscientiouly, inexorably : at once stepped 
 into the position of a man rather older than 
 he really was, somewhat stately and dignified, 
 and — her husband. And by degrees through 
 a succession of lightning quick glances, 
 followed by drooped eyelids, and the con- 
 
Changing Lifes Setting 27 
 
 sciousness thereby won, she played up to him, 
 and subsided into the dignified young 
 mistress of his household ; that is, she took 
 the head of his table, received his guests well, 
 superintended the flower decorations, and 
 altered the arrangements of the furniture. 
 More than that she could not do, for his 
 servants were first rate, and with regard to 
 every detail " old Custom" was called up to 
 confront her. Only gradually the dinners 
 grew more refined and practical. Lindsay had 
 no fault to find, a woman's delicate fingers 
 were smoothing for him the every day details, 
 imparting just that refinement and air of 
 luxury to his surroundings that he had wished 
 for and never attained. 
 
 Yet he felt the burden of life pressing more 
 heavily than ever upon him, embodied in this 
 slight, girlish figure that — looked at him at 
 times — rarely and generally when there was 
 company — with grey eyes that he seemed to 
 remember, together with a little curve in the 
 delicately pencilled brows above them, but 
 with an expression the grey eyes he re- 
 membered never could have worn. If only 
 he had not been reminded so daily, hourly, of 
 his first love, the love of his youth, the one 
 love of his life, he might perhaps possibly 
 have been lulled into forgetfulness of her 
 sufficiently to be receptive of the charms of a 
 girl young and lovely and pre-eminently love- 
 able. As it was how could be forget ? And 
 
28 Out in China 
 
 each day made him only more in love with 
 his memories ! Had he not been a very 
 timid, unsanguine lad, as well as rather a 
 fastidious one, he and Winifred Ellerslie 
 would have parted as affianced lovers ten 
 years before. It was because he remembered 
 her too well he had never fallen in love with 
 any other woman. Once in the interval he 
 had met her cousin with whom she had grown 
 up as a sister until his marriage, on which 
 occasion the youthful Lindsay had figured as 
 best man for want of a better. His bride had 
 already died, and when Lindsay met him 
 again it was with three little girls from whom 
 Lindsay at once selected one, not so much 
 for her looks as because of her name, Winifred 
 Ellerslie, for his attentions. He had given 
 her a watch, and the child had kissed him, 
 and he had never thought of her again. 
 When he began to correspond with Miss 
 Winifred Ellerslie on the occasion of her 
 cousin's death, on which he thought it only 
 fitting to send his condolences, and in her 
 letter there came a reference to his very kind 
 present of a watch so much treasured etcetera, 
 he thought it was like the Winifred he 
 remembered of old to attach so much im- 
 portance to his gift to a little girl, and 
 wondered whether she had divined that it 
 was for her sake. And though he was 
 occasionally puzzled and somewhat surprised 
 by expressions and opinions in the letters, that 
 
Changing Life's Setting 29 
 
 then began to pass between England and 
 China, yet again and again there were little 
 turns that the younger Winifred had learnt 
 or inherited from the elder, and that re- 
 stored his confidence, till the rest was all put 
 down to the inexplicableness of woman — that 
 mystery, as he knew she was supposed to be, 
 to man. Though for his part he had never 
 seen anything of mystery in the Winifred 
 Ellerslie he remembered. As to the little 
 girl, for him she had never grown older, and 
 he thought of her — when his thoughts strayed 
 to a possible relationship — as still always 
 lanky and impulsive. Then with his heart 
 full of love and longing, brimming over with 
 explanations of the little reticences and with- 
 drawals of long ago he hurried to meet his 
 wife — as he called her in his mind already, 
 never his bride — and was confronted by the 
 girl — the child of long ago — impulsive still 
 though much prettier and grown up, and alas ! 
 and alas ! and alas ! his bride ! For a 
 moment it seemed impossible that he could 
 go through with it, as if Fate had played him 
 too terrible a trick. Then the iron entered 
 into his soul, and Lindsay, till now the soul 
 of honour, candid to a folly, went forward to 
 be no longer ever again even an ordinarily 
 true man as long as that young creature and 
 he should both live. No going back, no ex- 
 planation seemed to him possible. He was 
 at all times rather a silent man, with a 
 
30 Out in China 
 
 difficulty about expressing himself, and look- 
 ing back upon it all so often afterwards he 
 did not see what else he could have done. 
 Another man might have broken into a 
 horse laugh and said : " I sent for the aunt, 
 and here's the niece. And a devilish pretty 
 girl too. Too pretty for me. Here one of 
 you other fellows, here's your chance. My 
 dear, there has been a mistake, and I'm in 
 love with your aunt." It might have been 
 better there and then to have been thus 
 brutally frank, anyway Lindsay knew he 
 could never have done it. Nor did it seem 
 to him it would have been the conduct of a 
 gentleman. So as a gentleman he, like the 
 Spartan lad, pressed tighter to his bosom the 
 fox that was gnawing his heart out, that is he 
 went forward to the young girl and pressed 
 her hand with as much of the air of a lover 
 as he could command on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 And since then he had played his part man- 
 fully, keeping always to his role. And the 
 very likeness to her aunt was fatal to poor 
 Winifred's chances of success in pleasing him, 
 for where another man would have been 
 most bewitched Lindsay was only ruffled by 
 the difference. The Winifred he — well ! 
 loved was the truth of it, and he knew it but 
 too well now— would not have done this or 
 that, would not have courted admiration thus, 
 laid herself thus open for compliment, spoken 
 
Changing Lifes Setting 31 
 
 with that rash haste, that decision so unbecom- 
 ing in one so young. Thus it struck Lindsay 
 though not others. They were bewitched, 
 lavished the admiration he did not feel, paid 
 the compliment that he could not utter and 
 paid it in full too, listened to her opinions 
 admiringly, or laughed at her quickness of 
 speech. 
 
 Forbes was, of course, a frequent visitor in 
 their household, he always had been, knew 
 the ways of the house and the qualities and 
 defects of the servants be\ter even than Lind- 
 say himself. He had seen the table change 
 from that rather medley assortment of little 
 glasses, affected by bachelors, each stuffed full 
 of a variety of somewhat incongruous flowers, 
 into a mass of Gloire de Dijons, a creeper 
 lightly laid upon the cloth knitting the 
 whole together, or some colour symphony to 
 be enjoyed rather than described. He had 
 watched and even helped in the transforma- 
 tion of the drawing room. But he had not 
 been present at the one scene between 
 Lindsay and his wife. It was when the 
 drawing-room was first altered. Lindsay 
 came from the flaring sunshine outside into 
 the half light of a verandah darkened room, 
 and before him saw — Was he gone mad? 
 There stood the girl he remembered, the girl 
 he had loved without knowing it all these 
 years, and yet not just as he remembered her, 
 a little only a trifle fuller in the bosom, a 
 
2,2 Out in China 
 
 trifle, yes decidedly a trifle sweeter looking 
 even than he remembered her, the cheek a 
 little rounder, the hair somewhat looser on 
 the forehead, all rather with the freedom of 
 the ripened woman, than the austere thinness 
 of the unripened girl, her dress loosely girt in 
 at the still slender waist, and falling in folds 
 over which one could not fancy her tripping 
 in the awkward yet loveable fashion of her 
 girlhood. It was a long photograph panel- 
 shaped, much crayon- coloured, hung above 
 the mantle piece in the place of honour, 
 every decoration of the room leading up to it, 
 and making it appear as the presiding genius 
 of the scene. 
 
 Lindsay stood motionless, rooted to the 
 spot. Then " Do you like it ? " asked a girl- 
 ish voice from behind him. " I hope you do. 
 But if not, I can easily put everything back 
 again just as it was before. Only I wanted 
 so to have that picture of auntie — like a 
 guardian angel. That is what she has always 
 been all my life. It is not just like her, of 
 course. But I have fancied somehow that it 
 might be more as she was when you used to 
 know her. Tell me, had she already got that 
 very — very kind expression ? " 
 
 " She always had a very sweet — kind face." 
 
 Even to himself his voice sounded strange, 
 
 and he turned away as he spoke, so no 
 
 wonder she followed, trying to look into his 
 
 face, 
 
Changing Life's Setting 33 
 
 "I'm afraid you don't quite like this kind 
 of room," said the young wife — his young 
 wife. And there was a sound as of coming 
 tears in her voice. She had put up that 
 picture as a fetish to bring his love if any- 
 thing could. She had tried her best as Agatha 
 had told her, to be sensible and nice, but 
 her heart was hungering for a love she knew 
 she was not even approaching getting. That 
 peaceful home-like room, with her dear aunt 
 — his old friend — smiling down upon them, 
 if that could not give them peace and a home 
 feeling, what could ? But Lindsay was in- 
 capable of noticing her changes of tone, as 
 putting a great constraint upon himself he 
 just managed to articulate, " I don't think I 
 do. I am old fashioned — cling to old things." 
 As he spoke unconsciously he walked up to 
 the picture and looked at it, the sweet, kind 
 face that he found he had forgotten a little — 
 that was changed somewhat, had alas ! grown 
 more than ever into his ideal — the ideal wife 
 for a man somewhat tired, who had always 
 found life rather much for him. 
 
 Now if there was one thing that the others 
 had always granted that Winnie excelled 
 them all in, it was in the arrangement of a 
 room. Millicent had told her more than 
 once she believed she could make a fortune, 
 it she would only go out and give advice to 
 ladies in difficulties, and at home her dictum 
 had been considered absolute on all such 
 
34 Out in China 
 
 matters. No one had ever asked her why- 
 she did this or that, they had only admired 
 and marvelled. Forbes had been the same 
 to-day. After his first start of astonished 
 admiration he had simply made himself her 
 head assistant, and admired, all the while 
 finding meanings and reasons for her adjust- 
 ments, that she herself had never thought of, 
 but which she had fully appreciated and greatly 
 enjoyed when thus revealed to her. But now 
 her husband — her husband had no word of 
 praise, seemed to see nothing but the one 
 picture. 
 
 " You are not meant to look at it like that," 
 said Winifred. "You should see it with the 
 whole room, as just the centre of it, pervading 
 it all. Do you not like the room ? " 
 
 " I — I cannot sit in a room like this," 
 stammered Lindsay, hardly knowing what 
 he was saying, and beyond his own control 
 for the moment. 
 
 "Stand here," she cried impatiently, waving 
 him back. 
 
 " I see — I see the picture," stammered 
 Lindsay, "Where my wife's should be." 
 
 " Hung by my hand," cried the deeply 
 wounded girl — as she walked past him, sprang 
 upon a chair, and actually tore the picture 
 from its frame. " You see a blank now where 
 your wife's picture ought to hang. And the 
 whole room is nothing now," she cried looking 
 round it in vexation, then disappeared abruptly. 
 
Changing Lifes Setting 35 
 
 Lindsay knew that he ought to follow her, 
 ought at once, by loving words and still more 
 loving caresses, to soothe away the hurt he 
 had not meant to give, not waiting for it to 
 fester and strike deeper. But like many men 
 in the East he had got into the habit of putting 
 off, and trying to get round difficulties instead 
 of facing them. He told himself now it was 
 better to let her calm down, recover from her 
 — agitation. And he did not hasten, but 
 stood still staring at the blank on the wall — 
 realizing every moment more the blank in his 
 life. She could never have done a thing like 
 that. He stooped and picked up the little 
 torn bits of paper and frame, and wondered 
 how hands that looked so frail, could have 
 exercised so much violence, yet manlike never 
 delved deep enough to divine what had been 
 the inspiring cause of so much energy. And 
 when, in the evening, he found the room all 
 transformed again, Chinese embroideries hang 
 ing on the walls, the scheme of colour all 
 Chinese, and his best plates in patterns on the 
 walls, meaningless but full of colour, Winifred 
 herself in a particularly brilliant costume lean- 
 ing back on cushions with her hands clasped 
 behind her head asking him a little indiffer- 
 ently, if he liked the room better now, he only 
 congratulated himself on finding that she was 
 not of a sullen temperament, and that if she 
 had her tempers evidently they were quickly 
 over Whilst after a second or two she ap- 
 
2)6 Out in China 
 
 peared livelier than he had yet seen her, so 
 that he even ventured on a compliment. 
 
 " But you are a regular little enchantress, 
 twist my old room backwards and forwards, 
 transforming it at every turn." 
 
 " And for the life of me I can't see how it 
 is done," said Forbes, who was sitting on the 
 sofa beside her, very busy bending a flowering 
 spray after the Japanese fashion. He was 
 always there for five o'clock tea now. The 
 two men had been great friends before. In 
 a small Port men are apt to see each other 
 every day or never. They are either great 
 friends, or — annoy each other considerably. 
 Forbes had got into the way of dropping in 
 every day for five o'clock tea, and then 
 generally the three took a stroll together, 
 or sometimes Forbes and Winifred played 
 Tennis. Lindsay did not play. To-day, 
 however, he went to look on at their game. 
 For it had entered into his head for the first 
 time to consider whether his wife mio;ht not 
 possibly have something of the flirt in her 
 composition. Surely she was to-day quite 
 unnecessarily brilliantly dressed, surely she 
 moved her hands from the wrists and touched 
 flowers with her finger tips in a way which 
 he had seen French ladies do in pictures. 
 Was she possibly laying herself out for 
 Forbes' admiration ? Was Forbes possibly 
 admiring? It had never occurred to him to 
 think of all this before, never occurred to him 
 
Changing Lifes Setting 37 
 
 now to think that it might all be done with a 
 view to himself, that it was possible for a 
 wife, who felt she had not got them, to try by 
 the same arts by which women more generally 
 try to attract other men, to ensnare a husband's 
 love and admiration. What a thing it is to 
 go on living forty-eight years in China, away 
 from all women relations, or old friends, 
 absorbed in increasing your business ! This 
 self absorption is often looked upon as a 
 virtue. " I never go outside the Compound " 
 says a missionary lady with much the same 
 air with which a poor women in a noisy street 
 in London will often say, " I make no 
 acquaintances." Both find it quite enough 
 to look after their own affairs, and though 
 the affairs of one may be higher than those 
 of the other, the spirit is the same. Lindsay 
 had always been liberal and considerate to- 
 wards everyone he came in contact with ; 
 but he had never till now thought about other 
 people at all, would indeed have reckoned it 
 rather an impertinence to consider their 
 characters, and what grieved or pleased 
 them. 
 
 Once he wandered away from the game, 
 and looked at his transmogrified drawing 
 room. It was indeed a change Winifred had 
 wrought there. But the room looked dead, 
 absolutely dead now, without the brightly 
 dressed girlish figure in the centre of it. And 
 as he looked, it dawned upon him that all the 
 
38 Out in China 
 
 ornamentation had led up to herself this time. 
 And with a rush of strange, over mastering 
 sensations he realised that the room, that she 
 had first devised, had been the room that was 
 really to his taste, that he should have liked 
 for his living room, presided over, inspired by 
 his ideal woman. Suddenly a cold chill 
 seemed to penetrate to the very marrow of 
 his bones, and he went out for a quiet walk 
 by himself, the two playing tennis quite for- 
 gotten. 
 
 " I met Mr. Lindsay by himself alone again 
 to-day," said Mrs. Kitley. " Poor man ! It 
 is a mistake to have married so young a wife. 
 Still she might keep up appearances a little." 
 
 People were beginning to talk already. 
 In a small Port they would really have 
 nothing to say if they did not talk of one 
 another. Still it has to be done with great 
 care. People are all so thrown together, and 
 you must count upon everything being re- 
 peated. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE BRIDE'S HOME COMING 
 
 Ports in China differ considerably. That, 
 where Lindsay's Hong was situated, is per- 
 haps the liveliest of the smaller ports. There 
 foreigners all live together on a little island, 
 the great dirty Chinese city lying across the 
 water where the men's counting houses also 
 are. The men cross the mouth of the river, 
 or the inlet of sea, as you like to call it, every 
 morning, whilst their wives, if they have any, 
 remain behind in flower-encircled villas, that 
 to the eye suggest Palaces of Delight, yet 
 sometimes also give the idea that the sleep- 
 ing beauty within may be waiting somewhat 
 longingly for the fairy prince to come and 
 waken her. Perhaps, for this very reason, 
 it is not like some ports rich in scandals, 
 dark tragedies of which no one in China 
 ever knows the real mot de fenigme, but 
 over which someone in Europe has probably 
 shed bitter tears enough, and which are re- 
 
4-0 Out in China 
 
 lated by people at a loss for conversation, 
 gaining at each repetition in unlikeness to 
 truth in spite of the accompanying assvera- 
 tion that it is all really quite true, people 
 apparently never realising that you may 
 relate a truth so as to make it most untrue, 
 just as you may tell a fairy tale so as to 
 make it appear like reality. 
 
 When Winifred first arrived it seemed to 
 her as if she had straightway stepped into 
 a fairy tale. The voyage from Shanghai 
 had been rough, and there had been a certain 
 dignified restraint about Lindsay's kindness, 
 that had pleased the highly strung girl, who 
 would have shuddered away from an officious, 
 demonstrative husband in the malaise that 
 overcame her on the short choppy China sea, 
 even after the long six weeks' voyage from 
 England. Then they passed among the 
 islands, and the sun shone, and the rocks 
 became wilder and wilder in their fantastic 
 shapes and huge size, while the foam shewed 
 out white and sparkling against the low cliffs, 
 till, as they got further in, the sea only lapped 
 languidly upon the shore. They were pass- 
 ing by vessels each with an individuality of 
 its own, and Mr. Lindsay was telling her to 
 what line each belonged, what it carried, and 
 where it came from, as if they were all old 
 friends. Everyone seemed to be an old 
 friend, everyone seemed to be glad to see 
 him. People looked at her curiously, shook 
 
The Brides Home Coming 41 
 
 hands friendlily, then turned to congratulate 
 Lindsay once more — this time more heartily. 
 Everyone's boat was at his service, cham- 
 pagne was handed round, there were bunches 
 of flowers till she could hold no more ; then 
 there were men in fresh white clothes with 
 broad blue borders, and blue tassels covering 
 all their queer, conical hats — Lindsay's livery 
 this — kneeling before her and bowing their 
 fore-heads to the deck, good-byes from the 
 captain and officers, all so kind and like old 
 friends to her now, then cheers ! Ringing 
 cheers ! Cheers, and a shower of flowers ! 
 And they went on shore in a beautiful boat, 
 Lindsay's own ! Oh ! that Millicent and 
 Agatha could have seen her then ! 
 
 But then came the new experience, sedan 
 chairs, in which they were carried stilly, 
 swiftly, and oh, so comfortably. They passed 
 through a gate, under a dark archway of 
 overhanging trees. Violets surely, what 
 sweet scent ! Quickly out into the sunshine 
 again, and flowers, flowers everywhere, per- 
 fuming all the air with sweet scents unknown 
 to her ! The sedan chairs put them down 
 at the foot of a flight of steps. And there 
 was Mr. Lindsay helping her out : '' Welcome 
 home, Winifred ! " Then all the servants 
 in a body in the veranda kneeling, and 
 knocking their heads, or otherwise welcom- 
 ing her! And a great burst of crackers 
 from the rosy looking strings hanging from 
 
 3 
 
42 Out in China 
 
 the trees, from the eaves, from everywhere 
 at once. And drooping across the entrance 
 door by which they had to go in, a great 
 garland of roses. "All the same Klissmuss " 
 said the head man, whom Lindsay told her 
 to call Boy. He had been over twenty years 
 in Lindsay's service, and was evidently very 
 proud of the rose garland, explaining how 
 Mississy This, and Mississy That had helped 
 with it, and sent flowers from their gardens, 
 declaring that it was " old Custom," and Eng- 
 lish brides must have roses. The Boy was 
 evidently delighted thus to show that he 
 knew English customs. 
 
 But before passing under the roses, 
 Winifred stood on the veranda gazing at the 
 different views. They had come up by the 
 Sedan or carriage drive with its separate short 
 flight of steps entering the veranda from one 
 end, but from the dark grove of trees they 
 had passed underneath there was another long 
 straight flight of steps coming like a dart 
 right into the middle of the veranda, and as 
 it did so connecting three separate terrace 
 gardens set out with large terra cotta pots 
 full of flowers, and flowering shrubs. And 
 down either side of this flight of steps there 
 was a triple row of pots full of flowers, or- 
 dinary garden pots where the flight was steep, 
 and large terra cotta pots, matching those on 
 the terraces, at each terrace landing. Below 
 waved the green tree tops, and across the 
 
The Bride s Home Coming 43 
 
 tree tops Winifred looked over the Island 
 towards its highest hill with a remarkable 
 group of large rocks crowning its summit. 
 There to the left Mr. Lindsay pointed out to 
 her the trees of the Consulate, where Forbes 
 lived, trying to make her remember him 
 amongst the many friends that had greeted 
 them in Shanghai. But Winifred could not 
 remember him. " There were so many," she 
 said. Then over their own flat bit of garden 
 lying still further to the left they looked out 
 on to the sea, the masts of the vessels in 
 harbour, and beyond them the mainland with 
 graves spread out upon it, white and tlat, like 
 clothes laid out to dry, and beyond them 
 again the trees of a famous Buddhist 
 Monastery. 
 
 " Oh, but we must go out into the garden 
 — your garden," cried Winifred eagerly. 
 
 " Our garden," corrected Lindsay, " or 
 rather yours now, for the flower garden should 
 always be the lady's especial property." 
 
 Winifred did not listen to him. She was 
 taking possession already, smelling this, ad- 
 miring that. 
 
 " There is another garden on the other side 
 of the house," explained Lindsay, "and a 
 Tennis ground beneath it, and — " 
 
 " Oh, but my poor flowers in the house," 
 cried Winifred interrupting him, " they will 
 all be dying." 
 
 " The Boy will see to them," said Lindsay. 
 
44 Out in China 
 
 The Boy seemed to see to everything. 
 There was five o'clock tea set out, when they 
 returned to the veranda, and again cakes 
 made by different ladies of the community to 
 celebrate the home coming of Lindsay's bride. 
 
 " How kind everyone is ! " exclaimed 
 Winifred. " How I shall love them all ! 
 And how I ought to love you for getting me 
 all this kindness ! " and she twined her arms 
 round him almost after the impulsive fashion 
 of long ago, when he had given her the watch, 
 that was ticking now in her belt. She had 
 not once forgotten to wind it up since she 
 arrived in China ! Lindsay's eyes filled with 
 quick, warm tears, as he drew her closer 
 towards him, patted her soft hair, and kissed 
 her soft, girlish cheek. "My dear Winnie, 
 you will soon win love enough for yourself. 
 Why you will be the little Queen of the place. 
 There is no one like you here, no one ! 
 Indeed, I never saw anyone like you any- 
 where." 
 
 " Not anywhere?" asked the girl, looking 
 up at him with that little curve in the brows 
 he knew so well. " Am I not rather like 
 what auntie used to be ? Prettier I believe 
 — " with a little blush and a half modest half 
 exultant look out of her eyes, that any lover 
 must have found absolutely bewitching. 
 
 " Much prettier," answered Lindsay firmly. 
 " Yes — Miss Ellerslie was like you. But she 
 never was — really pretty." 
 
The Bride s Home Coming 45 
 
 Yet he looked away and on the ground as 
 he spoke, not at the girl beside him, blushing 
 with self-consciousness, sparkling with anima- 
 tion, and at that moment ready to give her 
 whole heart, her whole life to the grave, 
 elderly man beside her, to whose life, to use 
 one of her own similes, she wanted to be like 
 a monthly rose tree, day by day putting out 
 fresh shoots and fresh pink blossoms here one 
 and there another. 
 
 " Am I really pretty then ? " she asked, 
 laughingly, forcing him to look once more at 
 her herself. 
 
 " Why, you are lovely, perfectly lovely — 
 and so bewitching," replied Lindsay. " I 
 feel, dear Winifred, I never ought to have 
 married you. I had no idea — " 
 
 Then she put her arms round him once 
 again, and kissed him on the lips this time to 
 prevent his saying anything more. After 
 that she slid her little hand into his like a 
 little child, and they went in shyly under the 
 garland of roses. The house looked some- 
 what dark coming in from the world of 
 flowers and scents and sunshine outside. But 
 the Boy had already made it gay with the 
 various bouquets, all duly put into water, 
 besides having before that done his best to 
 decorate it for the bride's home coming with 
 a quaint admixture of his own Chinese ideas 
 and those of various Mississies whom he 
 proceeded to enumerate. It seemed every 
 
46 Out in China 
 
 lady in the little community had been for a 
 week past contemplating Lindsay's house 
 and considering what should be done. 
 
 "To-morrow they will all come to call," 
 said Lindsay. " I said we should like one 
 day to ourselves." 
 
 Winifred gave him an expressive glance of 
 gratitude. But there were all her boxes 
 arriving, and Mr. Lindsay felt it his duty to 
 consult her about the arrangement of the 
 house. She however could think of nothing 
 but the views just then, and it became 
 evident at once that she was already in love 
 with that over their own flower garden and 
 the ships below, and the wild barren 
 mountains, treeless but grave clad on the 
 opposite shore. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 VAIN QUESTIONINGS 
 
 Day after day on the verandah a young- girl- 
 ish figure with hands clasped looked out to 
 sea across the flowers and tree-tops. Lind- 
 say left home directly after breakfast for his 
 office, returned for tiffin, then off again, and 
 back somewhat late for five o'clock tea, 
 Winifred superintending his various goings 
 and comings, and admiring his sedan chair, 
 as yet a novelty. He used to ask was she 
 always on the verandah ? But indeed she was. 
 Sometimes pacing up and down, with hands 
 clasped, sometimes leaning over the railing 
 with a rosebud dangling between her fingers 
 or a spray of heliotrope, pausing now and 
 again over a pot brimming over with Freesias 
 to inhale more intensely some of the delicious 
 perfume with which the whole air was laden, 
 and thinking, always thinking ! There was 
 nothing to be done in the house, which went 
 on as if by clockwork. No one was intimate 
 
48 Out in China 
 
 enough to drop in in the mornings as yet. 
 Only in the afternoon could the various calls 
 be returned. Oh ! those long, long hours of 
 idleness on the part of brides in the East are 
 terrible things ! The husband whose conduct 
 can stand the ordeal of their scrutiny had 
 needs be perfect indeed. And Lindsay's had 
 one initial and capital defect. He did not 
 ring true. Yet he seemed to be a true man. 
 And the young bride was not disposed to be 
 a captious critic. She had written home long 
 letters, describing the flowers and the 
 mountains, the one walk round the Island, 
 short but full of infinite variety, according as 
 to whether the sun shone on this mountain or 
 on that, whether the sea lapped almost 
 against the roadway, or left great tracts of 
 seaweed-covered rocks bare and glittering. 
 She had described her surroundings, leaving 
 out always the central figure — herself! and 
 writing but one short sentence about her 
 husband, "Mr. Lindsay is kindness itself." 
 She thought so when she wrote it. But as 
 the days went on and she began to realise 
 that what love making there had been had 
 all been on her side, the poor young thing 
 began to hunger for a caress, were it even a 
 hand clasp, betokening affection. She re- 
 membered Agatha's advice, her own good 
 resolutions, she flew to kiss him on his re- 
 turns, turned up her face like a good child 
 at his departures ! Whilst he kissed her 
 
Vain Questionings 49 
 
 ceremoniously, punctiliously at first, then 
 somewhat less as if it were an ordeal, affec- 
 tionately indeed, but always without a trace 
 of love or emotion. She, who had grown up 
 accustomed to sisters' twining arms round 
 her, to sisterly hugs and scoldings, to her 
 kind aunt's tender words, and yet tenderer 
 caresses, felt frozen even in the China sun- 
 shine — starved ! Was he really kind ? she 
 asked herself sometimes with head down 
 drooped, one large, salt tear after the other 
 dripping drearily upon the flowers falling 
 from her fingers. Why had he asked her to 
 come from her own home if it were only for 
 this ? How differently his letters had read ! 
 She had no heart to look at them now. She 
 had brought them all out to China tied round 
 with a rose satin ribbon. She often wondered 
 now how the man she knew ever came to 
 write them, what he could have thought of 
 her replies. She could never write such 
 letters to him now again. She wondered 
 had his letters really been what she re- 
 membered. But that rose satin ribbon 
 seemed to mock her in memory, and she felt 
 that she could not have touched it now even 
 to untie it. 
 
 Yet she argued with herself up and down 
 the veranda, up and down, and leaning over 
 and looking out over the tree tops, had she 
 not everything she could desire ? A beauti- 
 ful house ! an enchanting garden ! views 
 
50 Out in China 
 
 more beautiful than she had dreamt of, and, 
 besides their beauty, filled with a certain 
 strangeness that moved her heart with long- 
 ing. Then she thought of the servants, so 
 exemplary, discharging their duties so well, 
 and contrasted them with the one general 
 servant whom they all helped to do her work 
 at home — her old home ! What had she to 
 complain of? Nothing! Nothing! Nothing 
 of course ! said the poor girl, wringing her 
 hands in her contrition. He is always willing 
 for me to do everything I wish. He only 
 goes away from me so much because he is 
 obliged, not because he likes to do so, and 
 if he is satisfied to have so little from me- — 
 if it suits him — I — I — I ought, as Agatha 
 said, to be — very cheerful and pleased with 
 him and everything. And she picked him a 
 button hole through her tears, wired it, then 
 ran to wash the traces of tears away, and 
 came back with a flaming colour and a smile 
 to hand Lindsay his button hole and pin it 
 on herself. As she did so Lindsay held her 
 head between his two hands, and lightly 
 kissed the top of it. The girlish head droop- 
 ed lower and lower. Had she been thinking 
 all those thoughts, and he was so kind — 
 really loved her after all ? The next minute 
 she had hidden her face on his shoulder 
 sobbing convulsively. 
 
 Lindsay was inexpressibly distressed. 
 Never in all the course of his life before had 
 
Vain Questionings 51 
 
 he seen a lady cry, and that it should be his 
 young wife who appeared so heart-broken ! 
 In his horror he began to take thought for 
 her, as he had not yet done. " This life is 
 too dull for you — too lonely ! I ought to have 
 thought of it sooner. Of course a young 
 girl like you ! You want — -young companions 
 — games and things. I ought — Forbes has 
 come back — I will ask him round to play 
 tennis with you this afternoon." 
 
 That was the beginning of it. Winifred's 
 heart received a great blow, which had much 
 the same effect upon it, that it would upon 
 her head, if someone suddenly stunned her. 
 That he, her husband, should think she 
 needed young people to play with her ! It 
 steadied her at once ! She even smiled, and, 
 extraordinary to relate, rallied him upon not 
 being able to play tennis himself. Was Mr. 
 Forbes so much younger? No! but Forbes 
 was altogether different. And altogether 
 different Winifred found him, from the first 
 moment when she greeted him, and his eyes 
 rested upon her face, then returned with a 
 scrutinising expression, having evidently in 
 that first glance learnt more than Lindsay 
 had ever even looked for. 
 
 At first, however, it answered beautifully. 
 Forbes soon lured them to the recreation 
 ground, and Winifred got quite excited play- 
 ing now with this now with that one. She 
 did not play tennis well, had had but little 
 
52 Out in China 
 
 practice so far, therefore it was all the more 
 novel to her, and steadily improving made 
 it the more interesting. At first Lindsay- 
 would stay and look on, and sometimes even 
 he would be induced to play croquet. But 
 on this Winifred would insist on playing 
 croquet too. Lindsay did not enjoy it, and 
 it was evident that Winifred also did not 
 care for it, as she did for tennis. So more 
 and more he excused himself, and went off 
 for his old quick constitutional round the 
 Island. He said he did not mind going 
 alone, liked to walk faster then Winifred 
 could. At first she and Forbes used to 
 hurry off to meet him on his return and come 
 back with him. Thus for a few minutes 
 each day Winifred walked alone with Forbes. 
 With her husband she walked in the com- 
 pany of his friend, the Consul. Forbes got 
 into the habit of dropping into dinner very 
 frequently. When he did not dine with 
 them, they not uncommonly dined with him. 
 His garden sloped down to the sea. From 
 his drawing room you looked across the 
 garden at the moonlight on the sea. He had 
 a round window, which was overshadowed, 
 garlanded, loaded with glowing purple 
 Bougainvillia. He had to cut it away as 
 a weed at times. Winifred had a fancy for 
 the colour, and each day that she dined there 
 someone laid a spray by her plate, which 
 she twined about her hair or in her dress. 
 
Vain Questionings 53 
 
 Forbes said he had never cared for the 
 flower before ; now Winifred's grey eyes 
 brought out its meaning, and enhanced its 
 glow as of rich wine. 
 
 Thus day by day passed and husband and 
 wife were never alone together, and liked it 
 best so. Yet Winifred felt she would have 
 missed it, if she had never been alone with 
 Forbes. But never a day passed that she 
 was not, either among the Freesias on the 
 Verandah of her dreams before Lindsay had 
 returned from his office, or at the far end of 
 Forbes' garden by the sea waves lapping 
 gently on the shore, or in his flower garden 
 gathering a posy, or on the road round the 
 Island hurrying along to meet Lindsay. 
 
 Some people said Mrs. Lindsay was too 
 lightly dressed for this evening walk after 
 being heated by tennis. Everyone looked 
 on as at a drama, Forbes was the very 
 popular Consul, Lindsay the respected head 
 of the oldest established business house on 
 the Island, Winifred — the prettiest woman 
 among them. Yes ! they were all agreed 
 about it — she was very pretty and she had a 
 charm. She was the most admired woman 
 on the Island. All the men said so always. 
 And all the ladies agreed. But they watched, 
 not unkindly, some of them indeed rather 
 sorrowfully. No one said much as yet. 
 But it was generally understood something 
 might be expected to follow. " And it would 
 
54 Out in China 
 
 be such a pity — break up society so. Per- 
 haps Mr. Forbes may be sent to another 
 Port." 
 
 " Oh, but that would be a pity too. We 
 should never get such a nice Consul again." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BALL AT THE CONSULATE 
 
 It was after the scene about the drawing- 
 room, which he did not witness, that Forbes 
 sent out invitations for his ball. They always 
 call them balls in outports in China, however 
 small they may be. Only in Shanghai is 
 there a large enough society for people to 
 give little dances. An outport is always 
 trying to make itself appear considerable, and 
 it talks about " our races " and " our last ball " 
 till you can hardly believe it when you learn 
 that only about eight men keep ponies in the 
 place, and that there are much the same 
 number of dancing ladies. But Lindsay's 
 Port was old established, and peculiarly for- 
 tunate just then in that the Commissioner's 
 wife had a governess for her children, and a 
 merchant's wife had a sister staying with her 
 on a visit. There were also at least nine 
 dancing wives to begin with, without including 
 Mrs. Anhesley, who might always be counted 
 
56 Out in China 
 
 upon for a square dance or two, and enjoyed 
 them. So Forbes' ball was to be quite a 
 grand affair, Chinese lanterns all up the 
 garden walk and festooned among the trees, 
 and the ball-room decorated as never had a 
 ball-room on the Island been decorated be- 
 fore, for all the gardens contributed of their 
 best, and Winifred presided with her fanciful 
 ideas and unrivalled taste. 
 
 It was her first ball, but she did not think 
 it necessary to tell her China friends this, as 
 she dressed herself in a state of feverish ex- 
 citement, then floated into the room on her 
 husband's arm looking like a Peri, or a spirit, 
 more than a mortal woman. He himself was 
 struck by her spiritual appearance, as he stood 
 back and watched her, torn from him at once 
 by an impatient partner, and floating round 
 the room, her light willowy figure moving 
 with the music, her eyes gleaming, her lips 
 lightly parted. Lindsay stood in a corner 
 looking graver and stockier than he usually 
 did, as he realised as so often before that 
 there could be no natural affinity between 
 that light, graceful, pre-eminently youthful 
 creature and his own grave, disillusioned self, 
 and once again over him — as so often over 
 Winifred — came the heart hunger, as he 
 thought of a soft, friendly hand he remem- 
 bered so well, patting his, and a woman with 
 the kindest of kind eyes standing by his side 
 with a little smile watching the young people 
 
The Ball at the Consulate 57 
 
 enjoy themselves but ready to go home with 
 him at once, finding her pleasure in doing so, 
 as he too would find his pleasure in it. For 
 his business had not been doing well of late, 
 a Chinese in whom he felt special confidence 
 had suddenly left his employ, he could not 
 think why, and he felt weary and particularly 
 disinclined for sitting up late. Now of course 
 it would be his duty to stay to the bitter end. 
 Though Winifred had come back after her 
 first dance, and passing her arm through his 
 pleaded " Won't you take one turn — not even 
 one little bit of a turn with me ? " then 
 whispered in his ear as they circled round the 
 room, " Recollect I am ready to go home the 
 very first minute you wish." 
 
 " Oh you must stay to the end. They 
 would all be disappointed if you went," said 
 Lindsay gravely, then roused himself to smile 
 as she bestowed a radiant smile upon him, 
 whilst whirled away once again. She was 
 dancing now with one of the best-looking 
 young men in the place, six feet four and well 
 proportioned. Lindsay thought how well 
 they looked matched. People must think 
 him and his wife a sadly incongruous pair, 
 not sadly though — ludicrously of course. He 
 hated to be laughed at, and moved uneasily 
 at the idea. Then he looked back at Wini- 
 fred and her partner once more. They had 
 paused from the dance, and he noticed the 
 little curve in his wife's eyebrows very pro- 
 
 4 
 
58 Out in China 
 
 nounced. She evidently was not enjoying 
 her partner's conversation. " No, she would 
 not like Jones ! Not much brains there," 
 thought Lindsay grimly to himself, and re- 
 flected that she might even be expected to 
 prefer his own conversation. 
 
 But now Winifred was dancing with 
 Forbes, dancing very slowly after the Shang- 
 hai fashion, and as they danced he was talking 
 to her, quoting poetry it seemed, for as they 
 paused these words were wafted to Lindsay : 
 " The red rose dreams of June — the white rose sleeps, 
 The nightingales are dumb, and in the dark 
 The brown thrush waits the prelude of the lark." 
 
 They had ceased dancing and gone out into 
 the night together among the Chinese lanterns 
 and the sweet scent of the flowers, and as 
 her dress almost brushed her husband Wini- 
 fred had not even noticed him, as she looked 
 up at Forbes with an expression that her 
 husband did not even know. 
 
 It was with no intention of following them 
 that Lindsay too passed out into the night, 
 but to — to place that picture with no one able 
 to study his face as he did so. Forbes, the 
 man of all men, that he had always reckoned 
 most his friend, valued most as a friend — be- 
 cause — oh ! hang it all ! because he was out 
 and away the nicest fellow he had ever known, 
 Forbes who was his own age or thereabouts 
 but by dint of quicker sympathies, a more 
 athletic frame always passed muster for quite 
 
The Ball at the Consttlale 59 
 
 a young man, dancing, playing tennis, racing 
 ponies, and always everywhere a popular man 
 with maid and matron. No one knew why 
 he had never married, Forbes himself said he 
 had never had a chance, never been to a 
 place yet where some man or other had not 
 been before him with every woman in the 
 place. He had never posed as a lady killer, 
 a breaker up of happy homes, had never even 
 been reckoned a flirt, just not married, and 
 been very much liked. And now he was 
 walking with Winifred, beautiful, young, 
 inexperienced, Winifred in that exquisitely 
 romantic garden in the moonlight, quoting 
 poetry to her and evidently charming her. 
 Lindsay gripped hold of a railing till he 
 almost cried out with the pain in his hands. 
 He felt dizzy all on a sudden, his brain 
 seemed to reel. He heard the soft persuasive 
 music, and the swing of the dancers' feet. 
 He noticed, as he had never noticed before, 
 the luscious, languorous scent of the flowers. 
 Burnt in upon his brain was the picture of 
 Winifred, with her slight, swaying figure, 
 Forbes' arm still round her waist, his face 
 bent towards her, his eyes looking into hers, 
 and hers looking up at him, confidingly, 
 lovingly, with the look "with which she'd 
 follow him round the world," thought the 
 husband standing by himself in the night. 
 He had never in all his life before felt so 
 elderly, never so fully realised that he had 
 
60 Out in China 
 
 passed through life wilfully or foolishly miss- 
 ing the best things in it. Why had he not 
 as a young man clasped the elder Winifred to 
 his bosom and defied fate secure in her love ? 
 He recollected that little, awkward trick of 
 hers stumbling over her dress in her haste to 
 help anyone or do anything. It had gone 
 against him in the old days. He had been 
 annoyed by her awkwardness, her want of 
 distinction. She had not ever been really 
 pretty, as far as he remembered. Well, the 
 wife he had married was distinguished enough 
 — more than pretty, lovely — the cynosure of 
 all eyes ! And of course everyone must think 
 so, Forbes included. Oh ! for the restful 
 domestic happiness he might have had with 
 a wife who loved him, who would have grown 
 old together with him ! Yes ! and prevented 
 him from growing old so quickly too ! Oh, 
 that he could give up Winifred to Forbes, 
 and let them both be happy together. Why 
 could it not be ? God knew he did not want 
 her, not that child, who had not even yet 
 realised that he had a responsible business, 
 and cares upon his shoulders, who wanted to 
 be kissed and have poetry quoted to her, and 
 to be loved as Forbes would love her ! He 
 knew it all now with a sudden intuition. But 
 how far had it gone ? Was everyone talking 
 about it already ? Were they saying why 
 this ball was given ? It was for Winifred of 
 course. Mrs. Lindsay's ball. In honour of 
 
The Ball at the Consulate 61 
 
 Mrs. Lindsay, everyone had said. But did 
 they know — did he know — how far in 
 Heaven's name had the thing gone ? 
 
 " He is so very kind," in Winifred's soft 
 voice from the pathway beneath. 
 
 " My dearest child, do you think of your- 
 self as a dog, whom people pat — or kick ? 
 Kind to you indeed ! I should think — " 
 and Forbes' further words were lost among 
 the trees. 
 
 So they had been walking in the garden 
 all this time ! Good God ! how people must 
 be commenting upon their absence ! My 
 dearest child ! It had gone pretty far 
 indeed, and yet — and yet he knew he had 
 heard Forbes call her so before without 
 thinking anything of it, and justice bade 
 him remember the tone was jesting. Any- 
 how he would not be laughed at. Her 
 good name must be saved if possible. The 
 three must re-enter the ball-room together. 
 He advanced to meet them. 
 
 " Winifred, will you not be taking cold ? " 
 he said. "Why, how chilled your arm is!" 
 and he drew it through his and looked at her. 
 
 There was no expression of guilt upon her 
 face. " I said it was time to go in. Only 
 I am so dreadfully afraid of my partners ; I 
 am sure I have missed more than one dance. 
 Will they be very angry ? " 
 
 "Very angry indeed," said Lindsay. It 
 was a relief to him to say the words. 
 
62 Out in China 
 
 Then he re-entered the ball-room with his 
 wife upon his arm, and the young men of the 
 dance before, and of the last dance and of 
 this dance were all round her at once. And 
 there was Winifred frightened and casting 
 appealing glances to him to help her out of 
 her difficulty just as she had always been 
 used to appeal to her sisters ; then, when he 
 did not respond, looking round for Forbes. 
 
 " Come Mace, don't be so obstreperous. 
 Fight me if you must fight somebody, but 
 not the young lady. Now don't bother, 
 Smith. Here's your partner for this dance, 
 Mrs. Lindsay ! Off you go with her," said 
 Forbes, then himself hurried away to make 
 his peace with goodnatured Mrs. Annesley, 
 who he knew always counted the dances till 
 the squares came round in which alone she 
 could join. " Do come down to supper with 
 me instead now," he said. " I'll ask them 
 to make the extra a quadrille," whilst the 
 kindly lady smiled acquiescence. 
 
 "How pretty she is!" she murmured, as 
 they were leaving the ballroom, looking back 
 at Winifred and her partner, again the brain- 
 less but good looking Jones. " Are not 
 Mrs. Lindsay and a ball just made for 
 one another ? " 
 
 "They are indeed," cried Forbes en- 
 thusiastically. 
 
 " And yet do you know I am a little sorry 
 for Mr. Lindsay," said the stout but discreet 
 
The Ball at the Consulate 63 
 
 matron. " I don't think such a fascinating 
 young creature can be quite a comfortable 
 wife for a man of his age and standing. Not 
 quite a comfortable wife, you know," she 
 repeated. " He looks very grave to-night, 
 don't you think ? " 
 
 " I had not noticed," said Forbes quickly 
 — " Here Lindsay come along with us and 
 have some supper. You don't dance, you 
 must sup. Oh, nonsense, man ! three is 
 company sometimes, capital company, is it 
 not, Mrs. Annesley ? " 
 
 At two o'clock they all went home, and 
 Forbes put out the lights by himself. Or 
 rather his servants did whilst he walked in 
 the garden and unconsciously found himself 
 on the very spot where he had stood with 
 Winifred during those missing dances, watch- 
 ing the waves tumbling against the rocks. 
 
 No one had pitied him, and yet the man 
 who had given the most brilliant ball that 
 ever had been given on the island, a ball to 
 be long talked of, was in reality very much 
 to be pitied. What was he to do as a man 
 of honour ? a friend ? And that poor girl ! 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 HOW THEY TALKED IN ENGLAND 
 
 "Winnie is disappointed in her husband," 
 said Agatha the Post Office girl. 
 
 "Let us hope not! Let us hope not! 
 There is no word of disappointment in her 
 letters." 
 
 " Now Auntie ! You know Winnie. She 
 says ' the sunsets would have enchanted 
 Turner, and the boats are all that is 
 picturesque. The house is only too large, 
 each room as big as our poor old house, 
 but they are all so comfortable, and the 
 veranda the most comfortable of all.' Oh! 
 then there are some pages about the verandas 
 and the long chairs — and short chairs, I 
 suppose, only she doesn't mention them. 
 They seem all made of cane anyhow, and 
 to come from Hong Kong, just as we say 
 from Paris. But there's no ' he is so noble 
 —my ideal — so far above me,' and she rolled 
 her eyes up to heaven and clasped her 
 
How they Talked in England 65 
 
 hands, mimicking her sister's manner when 
 in earnest. " There's no 'he is just the very 
 clearest fellow in the world ' as I say a hun- 
 dred times a day of George." For pretty 
 Agatha was engaged now. 
 
 " Oh, but you are not Winnie." 
 
 " Just ' Mr. Lindsay met me on the steamer. 
 We were married next morning ! ' We were 
 married next morning. Oh, auntie, that from 
 Winnie, who thinks marriage the most awful, 
 most momentous event in life, far more fatal 
 and solemn than dying, which we all must 
 face sooner or later, whereas marriage we 
 need not, it is voluntary. Auntie, Winnie is 
 broken hearted." 
 
 The elder Miss Ellerslie covered her face 
 with her handkerchief, while her shoulders 
 shook with sobs. 
 
 In a moment Agatha's arms were round 
 her. "Oh, you dear auntie, how could I be 
 so cruel ? Only your ' let us hope ' provoked 
 me. But what are we to do now ? What 
 can we do ? " 
 
 "Nothing," moaned Miss Ellerslie, "there 
 is nothing to be done. I am sure Mr. Lindsay 
 will be very kind to Winifred. But she should 
 not have gone out to China to marry him. 
 It was a wild enterprise. I always was 
 against it." 
 
 " I know you were," said Agatha. 
 
 " How did you know? I never said any- 
 thing." 
 
66 Out in China 
 
 " That was just it," said the girl. " When 
 I told you of George you did say something. 
 Come now, didn't you ? And yet Winnie 
 always was your own particular pet. She 
 always was the pet of us all. We all spoiled 
 her," said the Post office girl." 
 
 " I have the very highest opinion of Hugh 
 Lindsay," murmured the elderly lady, speak- 
 ing very slowly, and as if with an effort. There 
 was a curve in her eyebrows like that in her 
 niece's, and she also was very slight, but 
 shorter, rosier, more of a woman and less 
 like a spirit, than the girl who had gone to 
 China. 
 
 " I know ! you always said that," interrupted 
 Agatha. 
 
 " But Winnie is not the kind of girl to go 
 out to marry a man she has not seen for years, 
 really knows only by correspondence. Nor 
 should I have thought Hugh Lindsay was 
 the man to do so either. Both of them are 
 people to find marriage difficult. Perhaps it 
 would have been the same whoever it had 
 been. And gradually they will settle down 
 into each other's ways. If she is not happy 
 Hugh will feel it dreadfully," she added as an 
 afterthought. 
 
 " Dear auntie, I think it would have been 
 so much better if you had married Mr. Lindsay 
 yourself. You knew him so well long ago, 
 and I am sure you are much better suited to 
 making a man happy — that kind of man — than 
 
How they Talked in England 67 
 
 Winnie. It is not that she thinks of herself 
 so much. But other people must think of her. 
 Now you always think of everyone except 
 yourself, and no one ever thinks of you." 
 
 " I am older," said Miss Ellerslie calmly 
 after a short pause. "Youth is notoriously 
 the selfish age. Everything is of so much 
 importance to young people, their whole future 
 seems depending on every little trifle. Any- 
 way Mr. Lindsay never asked me." 
 
 Agatha opened her lips in a great hurry as 
 if to speak. Then suddenly a very wise ex- 
 pression came over the childish, rosy face, and 
 she held her lips tight pressed together, as if 
 afraid lest any sound might possibly escape 
 them. And by a sudden transition they 
 turned and talked of the everyday, pressing, 
 little details of their own life, as those who 
 love us at home have a knack of doing, quite 
 forgetting us and our calamities, by which we 
 fancy them completely absorbed, as they 
 would have been, were we still beside them, 
 and all happening there those thousands and 
 thousands of miles away. Out in China ! it 
 has a sort of dulling sound, taking the edge 
 off heroism, off martyrdom, off grief or joy. 
 They discussed the buying of Agatha's 
 trousseau, and what was the nearest date at 
 which it was possible the marriage might 
 take place, for Agatha's fiance after all had 
 prospects, if not a very assured competence 
 so far. " And George is just delightful," said 
 
68 Out in China 
 
 the rosy cheeked damsel. " Do you know- 
 auntie, what he says? He says he wouldn't 
 marry me at all, if it were not an understood 
 thing that as long as there is a roof over our 
 heads it is to cover you first before it covers 
 us. You are not to be left to a lonely old age. 
 See what it is for me to be engaged to such a 
 very young man as George. He thinks of 
 you as actually threatening to grow old, and 
 he won't hear of it that you were only Papa's 
 cousin, not his sister, though you were brought 
 up like one. He says you are one, auntie, 
 and always will be. And so of course you 
 will be. But I do think it is nice of George 
 to think of it all for himself. You see now 
 Millicent has got that situation, and Winifred 
 is so far away he thinks you have only me, 
 and that he is taking away from you your 
 most precious possession. Yes, auntie, 
 George really talks of me like that, me just a 
 Post office girl ! Oh, auntie, do see that I 
 make it up to him for being so sweet and 
 dear as to choose me out of all the girls in the 
 world. I don't want it to turn my head and 
 make me a little stupid, as I have seen some 
 brides thinking themselves so important and 
 making their husbands just fetch and carry. 
 I don't want George just to fetch and carry for 
 me. He is a great deal too good for that, 
 and I want to be a good, useful helpmeet 
 through life — to death — and on beyond," she 
 added solemnly. 
 
How they Talked in England 69 
 
 " I am sure you will be, my dear child. 
 But I will do all in my power to help you." 
 
 Then there came Millicent's letter, both 
 direct and profound. " Thank you for 
 sending me Winifred's. What do you think 
 we ought to do ? Ought we to seem to love 
 her awfully much — more than ever before — 
 or ought we to be very calm and quiet, so as 
 to drive her upon her husband for love and 
 sympathy ? After all he is her husband. 
 And I always knew marriage would be 
 difficult to Winnie. She could not realise 
 she was not going to marry a woman and be 
 just petted all day long. Poor — poor — dear 
 little Winnie. My heart aches for her. If 
 we could only get her back again ! But she 
 is Mrs. Hugh Lindsay now, — Mrs. Hugh 
 Lindsay for life. Oh ! marriage is awful, I 
 think. Now, as a teacher, I can at least 
 change my situation. I do hope George is 
 all right. But of course Agatha is a rough 
 and tumble girl. She could stand it if he 
 wasn't," etc., etc. 
 
 To which came a laconic answer from the 
 Post Office girl : " Thank you Millicent, but 
 George is — A.L.L.R.I.G.H.T., your rough 
 and tumble but in the seventh heaven sister," 
 also a rather longer letter from Miss Ellerslie. 
 But they none of them knew what to do. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHAT THEY SAID IN CHINA 
 
 And meanwhile the poor girl herself had 
 become all unconscious that she was to be 
 pitied. There is a certain amount of vanity 
 lying dormant at the bottom of every human 
 heart probably, and all the vanity in Winifred 
 Lindsay's nature had now been brought into 
 play. Had she loved her husband and felt 
 that he loved her, even then probably the 
 amount of admiration she was exciting would 
 have had a bad effect upon her. As it was, 
 her head was for the moment completely 
 turned. She had never been to a ball before, 
 never been to a picnic, never — if the truth be 
 owned — taken part in a dinner party to the 
 extent of dining through it, though she had 
 often come in to dessert in her papa's days 
 before the pretty mama she was so like died 
 like a faded flower. She had had so few new 
 frocks in the course of her school life that 
 
What they said in China Jt 
 
 they could be counted on the fingers of one 
 hand, and those chosen with a view to 
 durability rather than becomingness. She 
 had been petted and loved all her life but 
 never admired. Now picture her precipitated 
 with her trousseau into a luxurious and small 
 Chinese Port, the wife of the richest and most 
 respected man in it. To be Lady Mayoress 
 or reigning beauty in London turns many 
 women's heads, but then after all they have 
 as a rule grown up to the position somewhat 
 gradually. Not so a bride, who takes a 
 leading position in the Far East. As often 
 as not she was by no means a leading young 
 lady in the place from which she came. 
 And, as Mme. de Stael so wisely teaches, our 
 own environment, however small and petty, 
 always blots out the rest of the world for us 
 to a certain extent. To the young and 
 generally untravelled bride it does so com- 
 pletely, and she thinks herself the centre and 
 cynosure of the whole world, because she is 
 of all the world she sees. Winifred's 
 thoughts all of a sudden were centered upon 
 what dress she should wear, how she should 
 do her hair, what flower she should pin on 
 and where, and knew that her decision would 
 be regarded as a matter of moment by every 
 one she met that day, and that she was pretty 
 sure to meet everyone there was — therefore 
 for her all the world. It is astonishing how 
 beauty burgeons forth in such a forcing house 
 
72 Out in China 
 
 atmosphere, and by the end of the first month 
 there was no doubt that had she gone back to 
 Shanghai for the Spring races, as one or two 
 of her admirers urged upon her, she would 
 have been reigning beauty there as well as 
 upon the Island. She had been photographed 
 already in a dozen different groups, in a large 
 picture hat and evening dress of course, also 
 without a hat and in Mr. Takimoff's furs. 
 The Island community was fond of being 
 photographed, generally, collectively, and the 
 place being a merry one, as a rule all smiling 
 at one another. But now the important 
 matter in each group was Mrs. Lindsay's 
 position and pose. She was getting — and by 
 everyone known to be getting — the most 
 exquisite blouses made of drawn linen from 
 Swatow ; the local lace guild was all working 
 for her. Canton crape and finest glass cloth 
 were being requisitioned in spite of the 
 trousseau, for was not the summer coming on, 
 and no clothes made in England, her lady 
 friends assured her, were ever cool enough. 
 
 o 
 
 Winifred was popular among the ladies as 
 well as the men. She danced beautifully, but 
 then so they were convinced they all did, and 
 there were far more than enough partners to 
 go round twice told. She neither played nor 
 sang, and so the ladies who did still shone 
 undimmed, nor had the champion tennis 
 player any need to fear for her laurels. 
 Winifred soon tired with tennis, and though 
 
What they said in China 73 
 
 graceful she did not play hard, but indeed 
 would often by preference sit and gaze at the 
 extraordinarily fantastic roof of the Temple 
 beside the recreation ground with its crowd 
 of stone animals and trees all carved along its 
 roof. 
 
 It became noticeable that she was begin- 
 ning to flirt. Forbes noticed it first and was 
 sorry to observe it. She treated him gener- 
 ally as an old friend, yet once or twice now 
 she glanced at him in that way women know 
 so well. " Don't do it, my dear child," he 
 exclaimed involuntarily. Then seeing her 
 look of astonishment, " You are desecrating 
 my ideal." 
 
 For a moment Winifred looked at him 
 steadily, straight in the eyes. "And you! 
 what have you been doing all this time ? " 
 Then swiftly and stilly she moved away 
 before he could reply. 
 
 Had she realised it then ? Had she been 
 understanding it all the time ? Did she know 
 that he, her husband's friend, was head over 
 ears in love with her, had been making love 
 to her ever since he knew her ? She had 
 appeared so absolutely unconscious. All on a 
 sudden Forbes grew white and sick at heart, 
 any man observing him would at once have 
 seen his full age. He looked indeed more 
 elderly than Lindsay, standing moodily look- 
 ing on at the other side of the tennis ground 
 before starting out on his accustomed walk. 
 
 5 
 
74 Out in China 
 
 Winifred had paused beside the handsome 
 but brainless Jones. " Won't wash, Mrs, 
 Lindsay, I assure you. No can," the good- 
 looking fellow was saying in that mixture of 
 slang and pidgin English, that passes muster 
 for wit now and again. A slight shudder 
 passed over Winifred's expressive shoulders, 
 and she looked up for once for sympathy at 
 her husband not at Forbes. She was struck 
 at once then by Lindsay's attitude — surely 
 he had not stood bowed like that, when he 
 first met her on the steamer — his pallor, the 
 manner in which he was standing staring at 
 the ground. In a moment she was by his 
 side, her light hand passed through his arm, 
 " I must go for a walk with you to-day," she 
 said. " I am sure it is not good for you to 
 walk always alone." 
 
 " I am used to it. And I believe I prefer 
 it now," he replied quietly but firmly dis- 
 engaging his arm. 
 
 She stood motionless, as if rooted to the 
 spot, her hand still extended. Her eyes met 
 Forbes looking at her very kindly. 
 
 " We will go after him and rouse him out 
 of his moroseness," said the latter playfully, 
 adding in a still more considerate undertone : 
 " You had better sit down now and rest if 
 you are going to walk. You said just now 
 that you were tired." 
 
 "Yes, I am tired," said Winifred in a tone 
 of supreme conviction. 
 
What they said in China 75 
 
 "Poor little girl!" said he, as he hung a 
 jacket over her shoulders, half crossing the 
 sleeves over her chest. 
 
 She looked up at him like a tired but 
 grateful child. 
 
 " I think I will walk with you to-day to 
 meet your husband as he comes in," said 
 good-hearted Mrs. Annesley, "It will do me 
 good. I am getting so much too fat. It 
 hardly looks well for so young a married 
 woman to be walking always with some man 
 not her husband," she panted out in good- 
 natured gasps between taking breath, as they 
 started somewhat briskly up the hill. 
 
 "Mr. Forbes is my husband's oldest 
 friend," said Winifred, holding herself un- 
 usually erect. 
 
 " That would be a reason for his walking 
 with Mr. Lindsay every day but hardly for 
 walking with his wife without him, would 
 it ? " persisted the good-natured dame, who, 
 having made up her mind to give a warning 
 was not to be deterred from it, yet at the 
 same time looking round into her companion's 
 face in the friendliest, kindest fashion possible. 
 
 Winifred said nothing, but quickening her 
 pace somewhat, walked forward looking at 
 the ground. 
 
 " My dear, do you wish to kill me ? " cried 
 the elder lady, laying a detaining hand upon 
 her arm. " I am not nineteen — nor — nor 
 slender now." 
 
j6 Out in China 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon. I am so sorry. 
 It was most thoughtless of me. Only I was 
 thinking. Did Mr. Forbes never talk more 
 with Mr. Lindsay than he does now ? I 
 understood they had always been such 
 friends." 
 
 " Mr. Forbes is everyone's friend. We 
 all like him," said the elder lady. " Every- 
 one must. Yes ! I believe he and Mr. 
 Lindsay have always had the greatest regard 
 and esteem for one another." 
 
 " But did they never talk more together," 
 persisted Winifred, " Mr. Forbes talks to me, 
 but — " 
 
 "Yes, that's just it," interrupted the elder 
 lady in her most good-humoured tone. " He 
 talks to you perhaps just a little too much. 
 It is quite natural, my dear. I don't at all 
 wonder at it. I like to talk to you, too. But 
 a husband might — perhaps might not quite 
 like it. Men are curious creatures, my dear, 
 and I think, you know, you'll have to make 
 the experience we all make sooner or later. 
 You can't please every other man, and your 
 husband as well. Of course you may think 
 it is easy enough for me to talk now when I 
 am stout and elderly. Tom knows of course 
 I could not be fascinating now if I tried. So 
 he is just pleased when he sees men talking 
 to me, because he knows it is all good-nature 
 and kindly feeling. But you can't help being 
 fascinating even without trying." 
 
What they said in China *JJ 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Annesley, how can you talk of 
 yourself like that ? I am sure you are the 
 best liked person in the whole place, everyone 
 says so." 
 
 " Then be sure it is not true, my dear," 
 interrupted Mrs. Annesley with a little smile. 
 "Everyone never says so when it is." 
 
 " And I am sure you are not too fat," 
 continued Winifred ; then with a far away 
 look across the arid foreground, and the blue 
 sea, searching amongst the wild looking 
 mountains of the great mainland of China. 
 "But do you think I am fascinating? Do 
 you know I don't think — I don't think Mr. 
 Lindsay finds me so ? " And she looked 
 round anxiously at the elder woman, her 
 gleaming, grey eyes fixed upon her face. 
 
 " It is as I told you, my dear," said Mrs. 
 Annesley, gazing steadily on the ground, as 
 if she found her footing very difficult. "Every 
 wife has to make up her mind whether she 
 will be fascinating to her husband or to all 
 the others. It is like being converted," she 
 added, blushing a little and smiling,- as she 
 looked up. " You have to make up your 
 mind once for all. I was rather pretty when 
 I was a young girl, and I was as slight as 
 you are, though you mayn't believe it now. 
 Tom was always of a heavy build. He did 
 not care for dances, or nonsense or hanging 
 about admiring me ! I am sure I love my 
 husband as much as any woman could, but 
 
78 Out in China 
 
 if I must own up to a little defect of his — 
 he dearly loves to play first fiddle. Most 
 men do, really, though some hide it better 
 than others. I made up my mind about it 
 once for all. I'd chosen him for my husband, 
 and I decided for him. After all, when you 
 think of it, it is a poor role for a man of 
 parts standing about with a wrap waiting 
 his wife's good pleasure, while one man 
 carries her bouquet, and another her fan, 
 and a third is dancing with her, and she has 
 smiles and sweet glances for everyone but 
 the man in the corner — who just happens to 
 be her husband, that is all. I never would 
 have married the man who could have 
 accommodated himself to it. My dear, you 
 are not offended with me, are you ? " she 
 added quickly, laying hold of the other's arm, 
 as Winifred continued to walk beside her 
 saying nothing. 
 
 " I was just thinking — thinking. That is 
 all," said Winifred. "No, I am not at all 
 offended. Who could be offended with you, 
 dear Mrs. Annesley ? I know you mean 
 nothing but kindness to me, and I love you 
 for it," and there on the principal road of the 
 Island without a thought of who might see 
 her, the impulsive young bride threw her 
 arms round the elder woman and hugged 
 her. 
 
 But after that she walked on looking at 
 the ground again, and Mrs. Annesley was 
 
What they said in China 79 
 
 troubled by her expression, in was so sad, 
 she did not dare to break it upon her 
 thoughts or beg her to walk more slowly. 
 At last Winifred said very low almost as if 
 speaking to herself, " I was only thinking — 
 thinking — Tom — Mr. Annesley loved you 
 very much, did he not ? " Then as the elder 
 lady between her gasps sighed a Yes, Wini- 
 fred looked round in her face, saying very 
 distinctly, " And I was thinking what would 
 you have done if he had not? How would 
 you have tried to make him ? " 
 
 At that critical moment — and at the time 
 Mrs. Annesley felt truly thankful it was so — - 
 Lindsay himself came into sight over the 
 brow of the hill, walking very fast in their 
 direction, and the two ladies turned, and 
 walked back down the hill with him. 
 
 " And, my dear, I have had palpitations 
 ever since. What could I have said if her 
 husband had not come into sight just then ? " 
 said Mrs. Annesley to her husband that 
 evening. \- 
 
 " You'd said a great deal too much already," 
 replied Mr. Annesley. "Women always do. 
 You've made her know her husband does not 
 care for her, because she has told you so in so 
 many words. Women have that way. They 
 always learn things by telling other people. 
 Depend upon it she was not sure of it before. 
 And you've made her realize that Forbes is 
 her lover — " 
 
80 Ont in China 
 
 ' ' Oh Tom ! Tom ! how can you be so shock- 
 ing? I never heard anybody suggest — " 
 
 " Oh, didn't you ? They say it openly 
 enough at the Club ! " 
 
 " Oh, that Club ! you men are perfectly 
 dreadful when you get together." 
 
 " Nothing to what you women would be if 
 you could get together. Only you never dare 
 to. Well now that you've convinced Mrs. 
 Lindsay — you've done it remember — that her 
 husband doesn't care for her and Forbes does, 
 what do you propose to do next ? " 
 
 " I think you are very unkind, Tom. And 
 when I told you I had got palpitations, and 
 you are the only person, who can arrange my 
 cushions for me then. Your hand on my fore- 
 head always seems to do me so much good," 
 his wife added, as Mr. Annesley having ar- 
 ranged the cushions, proceeded to lay it 
 there according to the usage of many years. 
 
 "You're a good soul, Maria," he said. "But 
 I don't like to hear any talk about it, for my 
 heart aches for the whole lot of them, the 
 poor girl and Forbes, and Lindsay. As for 
 Lindsay he looks fit to cut his throat, and for 
 the life of me I can't see any better way out 
 of it." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHO CARES ABOUT CHINA 
 
 Thus the light-hearted time of unconscious- 
 ness and idle vanity was gone and for ever. 
 Now Winifred walked up and down the 
 verandah, wondering in her turn if she ever 
 had been unconscious, looking out over the 
 tree tops at the Consulate trees, and 
 chimneys, and thinking, "Will he come in 
 this morning? He might — to bring me that 
 newspaper we spoke of, or — of course there 
 is that plant. No ! here comes a note in- 
 stead. How disappointing!" Then before 
 she had quite finished reading it, there at the 
 top of the long, straight flight of steps would 
 appear Forbes himself, who after having made 
 up his mind he would not, yet somehow felt 
 impelled to go over and wait — wait till just 
 about when Lindsay might be expected, and 
 then — clear out first ! 
 
 But what happy, what deliriously happy 
 mornings those were in the comfortable 
 
82 Out in China 
 
 basket chairs among the flowers in the ver- 
 andah, looking over some poem which he ac- 
 cused her of never having read, or she told 
 him he had misquoted, or sometimes com- 
 menting upon some newspaper paragraphs. 
 For the newspapers were a little alarming 
 sometimes, but Forbes said it was nothing, 
 there was always trouble of some kind in 
 China, and the newspapers always made the 
 most of it. How longf ago those old miserable 
 mornings of self searching and longing seemed 
 now ! Now Winifred had learnt to love each 
 great uncouth rock mass, whose outline had 
 been studied and laughingly commented upon 
 together with Forbes, never with her husband 
 — and was now inextricably knit for her with 
 some phrase of his, or some change of expres- 
 sion, as he glanced round into her face. Did 
 Mr. Lindsay ever look at her face? If so, 
 she did not know it. And how she had 
 sought to win his glance, how pleadingly she 
 had looked at him. But that was long ago, 
 long ago, when she was, as it were, a differ- 
 ent person. 
 
 She was not in the verandah now, when her 
 husband returned for tiffin, oftener in her own 
 room, brushing away not the traces of tears 
 now but the traces of a too great happiness — 
 happiness that notwithstanding shewed in 
 her every movement, in the very set of her 
 hair, not to speak of the tones in her voice 
 and the shining of her eyes. 
 
Who cares about China ? 8 
 
 o 
 
 Sometimes Lindsay now would not come 
 home to tiffin at all, but would send a hasty 
 note, very apologetic. And to her surprise, 
 Winifred found she did not mind at all, did 
 not feel at all disappointed, only as she sat 
 before the bowl of roses or oleander, and 
 the dishes of till now unknown fruits, wished 
 that she had gon,e home with Forbes, or he 
 stayed with her, felt it a little absurd to 
 think of them each having a lonely luncheon, 
 luxuriously served, so near and yet apart. 
 Curiously enough she never thought at all 
 of the third one lunching alone — not luxuri- 
 ously — but off anything he could get hugger- 
 mugger in his office, nor what business 
 anxieties his detention signified. She had 
 wished at one time to arrange his tiffin 
 equipage for him with a view to these de- 
 tentions, but though thanking her he had 
 said evasively, " the Boy has always seen to 
 that," and she had felt put on one side by 
 their servant, and not for the first time. It is 
 in this way some brides learn to hate the head 
 servants of their husbands' bachelor days, till 
 not uncommonly the latter give notice. And 
 then in the after years those husbands may 
 not uncommonly be heard to lament that 
 they have never been so comfortable again. 
 The wives boast the bills are smaller, but 
 what of that in comparison with comfort in 
 China ! And no one realises that it was jeal- 
 ousy not economy that was the moving cause. 
 
84 Out in China 
 
 But this day Lindsay came home to tiffin. 
 "Has Forbes gone?" he asked almost be- 
 fore greetingf her. 
 
 " Ye-e-yes," she stammered. He came 
 to bringr that book " 
 
 " He has gone?" repeated Lindsay quickly, 
 " I wanted to see him. That is all. I must 
 go round directly after tiffin. Tell the chair 
 coolies to be quick, I shall want them in half 
 an hour," he said to the Boy. 
 
 " Would it not be better for Mr. Forbes 
 to come here?" asked Winifred, " you look 
 so tired, and the sun is hot." 
 
 " No, I had better see him in his office. 
 It is a grave matter," and without washing 
 his hands he sat down and ate his luncheon 
 fast, with barely a word, evidently full of 
 thought. 
 
 Winifred, pale and trembling in her shoes, 
 sat sick at heart, wondering if anyone had 
 been speaking to him, what he had heard. 
 
 Not till he had got into his chair, and 
 gone off to the Consulate, did she throw 
 back her head. " What am I frightened of? " 
 she said to herself. " What have I done 
 that is wrong ? Only talked to Mr. Forbes, 
 when I had no one else to talk to — when 
 my own husband — " then the burning blushes 
 over neck and face convicted her. 
 
 Not till she was just starting for the 
 Recreation ground, in despair of seeing him 
 in any other way, did Forbes appear. She 
 
Who cares abottt China ? 85 
 
 rushed to creet him. " What is it ? What 
 is it ? " she asked. 
 
 Forbes too looked grave. " You poor 
 little woman, you must not be frightened. 
 This place is quite safe. When you came 
 to such a dreadful big country you ought to 
 have been prepared for there being always 
 trouble somewhere or other. One comfort 
 is, it is a long way off." 
 
 As he spoke Winifred's brow was clearing, 
 the pucker in her eyebrows was gone, her 
 colour was returning, her lips parted in a 
 smile. China ! Who cared about China ? 
 
 " Why, what did you think it was ? " asked 
 Forbes, patting her hair. " Lindsay is 
 anxious about his business, that is all." 
 
 " Not his wife," whispered Winifred's guilty 
 conscience. And at once she took up her 
 most attactive pose, one little foot peeping 
 out from under her skirt. And Forbes 
 admired her. After all the role is dull for 
 the man whose wife is admired by another 
 man with, in any case, an agreeable freshness 
 in his admiration that is not to be found in a 
 husband's. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PLANNING THE PICNIC 
 
 Winifred had set her heart upon a picnic. 
 Before the summer heat was full upon them 
 she wanted to visit a distant Monastery with 
 a grove round it, and a view. The expedi- 
 tion had now been talked of for some time. 
 It involved sleeping for one night at the 
 Monastery, taking bedding, and cooking 
 utensils and food, and altogether required a 
 good deal of preparation. It had been the 
 subject of conversation for weeks past, and 
 the Commissioner's governess was simply 
 frantic to be allowed to go, while Mrs. 
 Kitley's sister, the only other unmarried 
 young lady of the place was only more quietly 
 bent upon it, and there were at least 
 three young men whose minds were set the 
 same way. " I don't think it is safe, 
 Winifred," said Lindsay on the recreation 
 ground. 
 
 " Mr. Forbes says it is," she replied. 
 
Planning the Picnic 87 
 
 " He would not say so to-day," said 
 Lindsay. 
 
 " Yes, he does," she exclaimed hurriedly. 
 
 " When did you see him ? " 
 
 " Oh, this morning," evasively. 
 
 Her husband looked at her. " Do you 
 see him every morning ? " his gaze seemed 
 to say. 
 
 " He came over just on purpose to settle 
 about the picnic," said Winifred quickly. 
 " There is so much to be arranged before- 
 hand. I had no idea what a trouble it would 
 be." She would not own to her husband 
 that Mr. Forbes had really come over to tell 
 her the whole scheme must be abandoned in 
 the present unsettled state of the country, 
 and that it was she who had persuaded him 
 into going through with it. " Well then, let 
 us go through with it or die," he had said 
 laughing, as he went away. 
 
 " There is no more trouble required than 
 just to say to the Boy, ' Boy, my go Shin 
 Wen Tsu.' He has arranged for parties 
 there often enough before. And you can tell 
 him what clothes you require. But I do not 
 consider it is safe." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Lindsay, if the Consul con- 
 siders it safe, the Consul who is charged with 
 all our lives and liberties," began the gover- 
 ness, clasping her hands. " Don't you put a 
 spoke in the wheel. Oh, my dear Mrs. 
 Lindsay, don't listen to your husband. Men 
 
88 Out in China 
 
 are always so cautious. I must — I really- 
 must see Shin Wen Tsu." 
 
 " So must I," exclaimed the other girl. 
 " It is is too bad to live all this time in the 
 place, and not see all there is to be seen. 
 And that's the only thing." 
 
 "Wait a little," urged Lindsay. "This 
 disturbance may blow over or — " 
 
 " Oh, there you are Mr. Forbes, do tell 
 Mr. Lindsay there's no danger at all. We 
 are only going for one night. And my 
 sister says she has ridden all over those hills 
 over and over again." 
 
 "Oh — what do you think, Lindsay?" and 
 the two men exchanged quick, grave glances. 
 
 " Hang it all," said Jones, who was one of 
 the three young men. " I don't know what 
 we are comingf to, if Englishmen are to be 
 afraid of a lot of pig-tailed Chinese." 
 
 " Run away if you look at them," said 
 another. " I know the Johnnies. Here I'll 
 take a pop gun, Lindsay, if it will make 
 your mind easy." 
 
 " Shall we ask the Taotai for a guard of 
 soldiers. He'll give us one directly if we 
 do," said Forbes appealing to Lindsay. 
 
 " Safer without Chinese soldiers I should 
 say," said Mr. Annesley. 
 
 "Well, Forbes, of course I defer to you as 
 Consul. But I have not liked the look of 
 things at all for a month past, and my 
 Comprador — " 
 
Planning the Picnic 89 
 
 " Oh, Lindsay, your Comprador. The 
 most timid man that ever ran away from a 
 mouse." 
 
 "He may be timid, but I'll back his infor- 
 mation for being more correct than your 
 Schroffs," replied Lindsay with a short laugh, 
 
 " We'll just go this once and never again, 
 Mr. Lindsay," pleaded the governess with 
 again clasped hands. " Oh do let Mrs. 
 Lindsay go. I can't go without my 
 chaperone." The governess being close on 
 thirty, and a very experienced young woman, 
 this was a stock joke, which never failed to 
 raise a laugh. In the East especially in the 
 hot season you often require to have heard a 
 joke two or three times to be quite sure it is 
 one. 
 
 Every one laughed now — Jones going off 
 in a perfect burst of hoarse laughter — and in 
 the general merriment Lindsay gave way. 
 " I should really prefer it, if you'd ask the 
 Taotai for a guard," he said in an undertone 
 to Forbes. 
 
 "Very well, I will," nodded the other. 
 "You'll come too, of course." 
 
 " I can't possibly. Business is difficult 
 enough already. I am at my wit's end as 
 it is." 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear that. Can I 
 help you at all ? " and the two men walked 
 away arm in arm in close converse for a few 
 minutes. They were both glad to think of 
 
90 Out in China 
 
 that afterwards. Then as they finished " You 
 are sure you can trust Mrs. Lindsay to me. 
 I can promise to take the greatest care of 
 her." 
 
 " I am sure you will. But if you are 
 going the sooner the better." 
 
 In the end they settled to start next day, 
 and from that moment all was confusion and 
 excitement in the various households. And 
 next day Lindsay saw them off before he 
 even glanced at the last paper. Then the 
 news was so strange, he half thought of send- 
 ing a messenger after them to recall them. 
 But at that moment there came a Chinaman 
 to see him without even waiting for his 
 arrival at his office. And after that he had 
 to confront a long and troublesome business 
 day. No one quite knew what was at the 
 bottom of it all, but there seemed already to 
 be marauding bands about, and up country 
 produce could not get down, so that it was 
 impossible to carry out existing contracts, 
 while no Chinese would buy anything. 
 People indeed were said to be busy bury- 
 ing their money. Meanwhile go-downs were 
 already full up with undelivered goods, and 
 no receipts were coming in, whilst things all 
 had to be paid for in England. 
 
 Lindsay did not fear failure, but he was 
 already in an awkward fix in more directions 
 than one, and was beginning to wonder how 
 he should wear through. His mind was 
 
Planning the Picnic 91 
 
 already full of business cares when a man 
 said laughingly: "The Big Knives are on 
 the war path in earnest, I hear. We shall 
 have to get our Volunteer corps into a state 
 of efficiency, or we shall be having our 
 throats cut in good earnest. What a fool 
 Forbes is to have gone out to Shin Wen 
 Tsu to-day of all days in the year." 
 
 " Think so ? He is the Consul and should 
 know. ' 
 
 " Never have been able to see what charm 
 there is about being a Consul that people 
 should always think they are so devilish well 
 informed above every one else. A set of 
 crazy cranks for the most part. Not Forbes, 
 of course. But I suppose he wanted an 
 outing. He always was, and always will be 
 a boy." 
 
 " Do you think there's any danger ? " asked 
 Lindsay. " They have got a guard." 
 
 " Oh, danger ! I don't know. Got a 
 guard, have they ? No ! there's been some 
 trouble with the soldiers. And in the end 
 none started. Better without them I should 
 say," the other called back over his shoulder, 
 leaving Lindsay standing in the roadway 
 like a statue. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 GAILY ! GAILY ! 
 
 The little party had started early enough 
 from the Island, hoping to get some way 
 into the hills before the heat of the day came 
 on. But there was first one hindrance and 
 then another. When all the sedan chairs, 
 and chair coolies, and carrying coolies were 
 ready, and all the provisions and bedding 
 etcetera put up, and the various Boys had 
 gone back for the last things " My forget," 
 they found the boats of course waiting, and 
 got quickly over to the mainland. But there 
 they waited and waited for the Guard, which 
 was not ready. Then somebody said the 
 Guard had gone another way and would 
 meet them at a point a mile or two on, and 
 no sooner had one person said this, than 
 another repeated it, and another and another, 
 till it seemed authoritative, and they all 
 believed it, and moved off. The long legged 
 handsome Jones was in a mountain chair 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 93 
 
 alongside of the governess. Little Greig of 
 the Customs, her other admirer, was mounted 
 on a huge, ill broken horse, that alarmed 
 everyone but the governess by its ways of 
 curvetting round and showing its heels. She, 
 who knew it had been brought out to win 
 her admiration, admired and was not alarmed. 
 Although she was a governess now she had 
 ridden from a child, and could ride as well 
 bare-backed as on a saddle. Indeed there 
 were few things about horses this plucky 
 daughter of a broken-down Irish landlord did 
 not know, and she would have been more in 
 her element in a livery stable than in a 
 schoolroom. This the Commissioner's wife 
 had already perceived, and being very will- 
 ing to see her happily settled in life had at 
 once consented to stay at home, and take 
 care of the children, giving their governess a 
 day off. The only other mounted member 
 of the cortege was Mr. Annesley on his old 
 stout Tientsin pony, that had once won a 
 cup some twenty years before. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Kitley and her sister Ellie, with the two 
 brothers Brown, and Mr. Murray, Miss Ellie's 
 favoured swain made up the. party, together 
 with a Lieutenant and a Doctor from the one 
 gun- boat in port — American, as it happened 
 — and, of course, Mrs. Lindsay and Mr. 
 Forbes. 
 
 " Is it not glorious ? Is it not quite too 
 delightful?" cried the governess. "How I 
 
94 Out in China 
 
 love to feel the warm, soft air just caressing 
 my cheek. Isn't life beautiful, Mrs. Lindsay?" 
 
 " I don't know. I think I'm tired," replied 
 Winifred to whom this little rhapsody was 
 addressed. 
 
 "Tired! Tired of living ! My dear Mrs. 
 Lindsay ! " 
 
 " Oh no ! not tired of living. I don't want 
 to die — not just yet," said Winifred with a 
 plaintive little smile. I meant I am tired. 
 It all seems too much. The sunshine too 
 bright — the flowers too many — everyone too 
 kind — as if life had given me everything it 
 had to give. ' Beyond the mountains! Beyond 
 the mountains ! ' I have said to myself so 
 often as I walked up and down the veranda. 
 And now we are actually going beyond the 
 mountains — to see if Heaven really lies 
 beyond them, I suppose. That is what one 
 always feels in life, I think, as if Heaven lay 
 beyond." 
 
 Forbes looked at her gravely — wistfully — 
 impressed, and not for the first time, by the 
 deeper meaning that seemed to lie within her 
 lightly uttered words. 
 
 Even Miss Murphy grew grave too for a 
 moment, then exclaimed gaily : " Yes, we 
 are going behind those mountains to find 
 Paradise there. Ah, and I'm sure we shall," 
 in her rich Irish brogue. 
 
 " No ! Paradise is here. I am in Paradise 
 already," cried Forbes. " Free from all office 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 95 
 
 cares — a beautiful day — lovely ladies ! " and 
 he took off his hat to the governess. " What 
 can a man want more ? " Then suddenly 
 breaking off, and with a very different ex- 
 pression, he began, " I say Ting-chai," then 
 continuing in Chinese asked vehemently 
 which of the men had got his gun, where it 
 was, who was carrying it, interspersed with 
 many, " You know I told you to be sure to 
 bring it. What ! no birds ! What in Heavens 
 name do you know about birds ? How do 
 you dare to pretend to talk to me ? Go back 
 and fetch that gun yourself. And if you 
 don't get back to us before nightfall recollect 
 I'll cut you a month's wages. Now go! be 
 off with you." 
 
 The man looked at his master for a moment, 
 looked him full in the face, as a Chinaman 
 rarely does, then turned and went. 
 
 "I say Forbes. Hie there! Stop that 
 fellow! He is a member of the Big Knife 
 Society if ever I saw one," cried little Greig, 
 who was wild about secret Societies, had had 
 his brain full of them ever since he arrived in 
 China. " Don't let him get away." 
 
 " Well, if he is, what good shall we do by 
 keeping him with us ? " asked Forbes. 
 
 "He will go and get your gun and — " 
 
 " True ! Stop there, Ting chai. This day 
 you go with me. Here! I'll write a chit. 
 Do you know I really think we had better 
 turn back." 
 
96 Out in China 
 
 "What! because you have got no gun," 
 cried Jones. " Here's mine and welcome. 
 There's not a bit of game to be had anywhere. 
 Yet I brought it. These Consuls all lose 
 their nerve," he added in an aside to the 
 governess. 
 
 Forbes , however heard it, and curiously 
 enough without showing a spark of indigna- 
 tion, although, unlike himself, he had seemed 
 full of irritation the moment before. " What 
 do you say, Annesley ? We could have our 
 picnic here." 
 
 "You're alarmed by the last paper," said 
 Annesley ? " Those newspaper people are 
 always trying to throw people into a panic in 
 order to sell their papers. My object is to 
 tranquillise people's minds. The only way to 
 set business going again is to restore con- 
 fidence. I have come out for the day with 
 the deliberate object of showing the Chinese 
 that everything is just as usual, and I don't 
 care that for their Big Knives." 
 
 Everyone looked round, and Winifred could 
 not help recalling Mrs. Annesley's words that 
 Tom dearly loved to play first fiddle. He 
 certainly was first fiddle at that moment. 
 
 But Forbes seemed only half convinced. 
 " Well, perhaps you are right. Shall you 
 and I go on to tranquillise people's minds ? 
 But these poor ladies, what have they done 
 that they should be used as a means for re- 
 storing business confidence , ? " 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 97 
 
 "But that's just it," cried Annesley. "With- 
 out the ladies we should not have the very 
 slightest effect. Now I am relying on Mrs. 
 Kitley's carnations, and Miss Ellie's pink 
 bows, not to speak of Mrs. Lindsay, who is 
 a host in herself in that chair with its rose 
 tendre cushions. Isn't that it, Mrs. Lindsay ? 
 Mrs. Annesley has been coaching me, you 
 see. No ! I made no bones of Maria's 
 wishing to stay at home. She has grown 
 stouter than she was, and a day in the sun is 
 no pleasure to her at the best of times. Let 
 alone being nervous ! But the ladies must 
 go on ! " 
 
 "To the distant hills! To the distant 
 hills!" cried Winifred gaily. "If everyone 
 else turns back, I go on," and she signed to 
 her chair coolies, who however yet lingered 
 waiting to see if the cavalcade would still 
 proceed, and what was going to happen. 
 
 "Just look at everyone! How confused 
 and strange all the men look," cried the Irish 
 governess. 
 
 "Do they ? And what do the ladies look 
 like ? What do I ? " asked Winifred. 
 
 " Oh you ! " Miss Murphy looked round 
 and remained staring. Winifred had never 
 looked lovelier, nor curiously enough, less real, 
 less like a creature of flesh and blood. " You 
 look — predestined — predestined — " 
 
 " To something hot and lingering ? To an 
 awful and terrible death ? " 
 
98 Out in China 
 
 " Oh no ! My dear Mrs. Lindsay, how 
 can you suggest anything so dreadful ? I 
 should think you'd live long enough, not so 
 very long perhaps, but — " 
 
 " I don't wish to live long," cried Winifred. 
 " To grow old and horrid ! " and she shud- 
 dered. " No ! Only happily ! Happily ! " 
 
 "Are you happy?" asked Forbes almost 
 jealously. 
 
 " Yes ! quite happy now we are going on 
 again. As for you, you came out of your 
 Paradise very quickly, and all for the sake of 
 a gun, that you cannot possibly use." 
 
 " How do you know ? " he was walking by 
 her side, plodding along somewhat heavily 
 and gazing on the ground. " You don't 
 really read the papers, and you know nothing 
 about it all. I believe this is the break up of 
 China come at last ! " 
 
 " I can't care about China yet," pouted 
 Winifred. 
 
 " My dear child, you are in it. It can't 
 break without your husband losing his fortune, 
 or " 
 
 "Is that why he always looks so sad and 
 grave now ? " asked Winifred quickly — 
 eagerly, as if — is that all ? 
 
 " Does he look grave ? I am afraid I had 
 not noticed. Oh yes, of course Lindsay is 
 troubled. He was consulting me very seri- 
 ously the other day. But don't you be uneasy. 
 Your husband's business is too firmly and too 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 99 
 
 long established. He will pull through all 
 right." 
 
 " I am not in the least uneasy," replied the 
 incomprehensible creature at his side. " Oh, 
 I could sing and shout for joy ! I am so 
 happy ! And I have been thinking such 
 dreadful things. And now I know it is all 
 nothing — nothing — nothing — only money ! " 
 
 They turned a sharp corner and there to 
 their great amazement came upon two 
 Europeans. Nothing seems half so surprising 
 as out in the country in China to meet 
 Europeans. They look so thoroughly in- 
 congruous with their alertness, and their 
 purposeful expression, altogether inharmoni- 
 ous with the landscape. Even these, though 
 dressed as Chinese, had an out of place air 
 about them. Forbes stopped at once and 
 greeted the man of the party, saying "We 
 are going out to Shin Wen Tsu. Do you 
 think it is quite safe ? " 
 
 " You are referring to these reports," said 
 the other very slowly. "My wife and 
 children are still out there." 
 
 " Oh, well ! then you give no credence to 
 them," laughed Forbes. " And I don't know 
 who should know, if you don't. You are in 
 such close intercourse with the people, have 
 lived so many years among them, are almost 
 a Chinaman." 
 
 "All but the heart," said the other still 
 more slowly. He was evidently a slow 
 
ioo Out in China 
 
 speaker, and like most slow speakers a still 
 slower thinker. Long living amongst Chinese 
 had not tended to quicken him. 
 
 " We mean to sleep at the Temple. It is 
 all right, is it not ? I have not been out for 
 a year or more. But the roof seemed quite 
 solid last time, and we've sent a man ahead 
 to sweep and dust." 
 
 " Why not sleep in our compound ! Miss 
 Wilson and I will be away, and the Pratts are 
 not there. There would be plenty of room I 
 think. You could use the school rooms too," 
 he added mournfully. " I suppose — I suppose 
 you have everything with you." There was 
 a terrible air of depression about him. 
 
 "Thank you! You think that would be 
 preferable to the Temple," said Forbes all 
 the more cheerily because the other seemed 
 so sad. 
 
 " Yes, very decidedly preferable to the 
 Temple," said the other as if he had at last 
 made up his mind, and signing to the Coolies 
 to proceed. 
 
 " Thank you. Then we will. What do 
 you hear ? " 
 
 " Nothing definite ! Nothing definite so 
 far," the other called back. " I'm rather in 
 a hurry — rather — " and the last words were 
 lost on the hillside. 
 
 " Why are they all going into town ? " asked 
 Winifred, when Forbes eventually rejoined 
 her, he too now established in his sedan. 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 101 
 
 " Who ? " 
 
 " All the Missionaries." 
 
 " All the Missionaries," repeated Forbes 
 astonished. 
 
 " That lady told me they were going into 
 town to get more coolies, and hurry the others 
 down, the coolies on the mountains were ask- 
 ing such absurd prices and insisting on being 
 paid beforehand, and they hadn't quite enough 
 money in the house, or they would all have 
 gone together. Now they are to send coolies 
 back, and the others are all to come in to- 
 morrow. But what is it you are thinking?" 
 as she noticed very various changes of expres- 
 sion coursing each other over Forbes' face. 
 
 " Never mind," he said at last, smiling like 
 his natural self. She had almost lost all know- 
 ledge of him in these last curious changes. 
 " We will have a happy day if it be our last. 
 Only it strikes me for the moment that meek 
 and pious one, whilst apparently conferring 
 an obligation on us, has very cleverly secured 
 a guard for his wife and children their last 
 night in the country. Their last night in the 
 country. Their last night 1 " he repeated mus- 
 ingly. " Now let us have done with wars and 
 rumours of war, and talk poetry whilst we 
 are yet in the sunshine." He looked round 
 at her with what she was accustomed to think 
 of as his good, kind smile. 
 
 But Winifred was still wearing her fey 
 expression, as without noticing him she 
 
102 Out in China 
 
 looked out towards the distant mountains, 
 her face all radiant, and murmured softly : 
 
 " ' Thus ever, near or far 
 
 Life seems but where we are ! " 
 
 " I don't know that. What is it from ? " 
 
 " ' Even Death is nothing more 
 Than opening of a door 
 Through which men pass away 
 As stars into the day, 
 
 And we, who see not, blinded by the light. 
 Cry, ' They are lost in Night.' " 
 
 she went on. " Don't you know it? It is 
 by A. St. John Adcock. I don't know any- 
 thing about him. But it has been such a 
 comfort to me in coming out to China. It 
 is about parting, not dying, you know — I 
 can't say it all. 
 
 ' So, with a last good-bye 
 In this grey hour you die 
 To us, as we to you ; 
 Parting is dying too 
 
 And distance, heart to heart despairing saith, 
 Is but a name for Death 
 
 ' To-morrow we shall say, 
 Our thoughts reflect to-day 
 His quiet room upstairs, 
 The lonely look it wears, 
 For all the house seems desolate and dim 
 With want of only him.' 
 
 Then again, 
 
 ' You will bear with you thus 
 Remembrances of us ; 
 And writing now and then 
 Of stranger lands and men, 
 Your tidings from afar shall reach us here 
 As from another sphere.' 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 103 
 
 I used to be so afraid of dying. Now I 
 always think it is just like coming out to 
 China. And beyond the mountains — out 
 beyond — where one never arrives — never 
 can arrive, till one dies — is Heaven — 
 Heaven ! I wonder what Heaven will be 
 like, don't you ? " 
 
 But here Forbes could not help her, and 
 he changed the subject by quoting in his 
 turn somewhat gaily : 
 
 " ' Green sprout the tender orchids in the spring, 
 In Fall the cassia blooms are fair and bright ; 
 Each in its season finds its own delight, 
 Who knows the joy of birds that perch and wing 
 In breezy thickets ? ' 
 
 That's what the Chinese say, though I don't 
 know who the translator is. The joys of 
 Heaven are not for me to-day. But what 
 I have I value." This with a very tender 
 glance. 
 
 Then some one called out to them, and 
 their tete a tete was interrupted. Is any- 
 thing more delightful than a picnic in Sedan 
 chairs ? The sensation of quite stilly and 
 without any exertion whatever being carried 
 through the air, the feeling of grandeur it 
 confers on those who are carried by no 
 meaner beasts of burden than men, the 
 soundlessness. Every other mode of transit 
 has its jars, its little noises. Winifred's chair 
 had gilded ends to its poles, they glittered 
 in the sunshine, her cushions were covered 
 
104 Out in China 
 
 with satin of a tender rose colour, that only 
 last year she would have thought too perish- 
 able even for a dress. She had on the 
 exquisite blouse of drawn linen from Swatow. 
 She was wearing the petticoat on which the 
 whole lace guild of Amoy had been labour- 
 ing for weeks past. She felt as Princesses 
 probably get tired of feeling, but it was all 
 novel to her. Her sister was a Post Office 
 girl going to and fro on the top of a 'bus, 
 Winifred had not yet heard of her engage- 
 ment. Millicent was a school teacher in an 
 iron grey alpaca for best. And to think of 
 it that they were all breaking their hearts 
 over her ! Could they but have seen her 
 then, carried along in the sunshine by her 
 four strong, swift bearers all in white with 
 blue borders and blue sashes, with her lovely, 
 large, lined parasol, her white and feathery 
 hat, and on her feet delicate little beaded 
 slippers, that could not walk a mile if they 
 tried ! They had none of them any inten- 
 tion of walking, it was too hot the ladies said. 
 Though Winifred had brought thicker shoes 
 with her for a possible scramble among rocks 
 in the evening. 
 
 They paused now to look back at the view 
 they were leaving, the Island with all their 
 respective homes upon it, each embowered 
 in trees and a garden full of flowers, that in 
 each case at least some one person thought 
 the prettiest, or best situated, or most 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 105 
 
 luxuriant of any on the island. Of course 
 they had to stop now till each could dis- 
 tinguish his own house, and each every one 
 else's house. But the Island was already 
 assuming that relative unimportance in the 
 landscape that it might be assumed to hold 
 in real life. There were already many other 
 islands to be seen, with waves breaking 
 white against their shores, a steamer pass- 
 ing by among fishing boats far out at sea, 
 and, nearer at hand, sheets of white graves 
 glistening in the sunshine upon the barren 
 treeless hill sides. 
 
 They gazed at it, all jesting with one 
 another, and taking no pains to imprint the 
 view upon their minds, for they would see 
 it all so soon again, they were but going 
 away for one night. The handsome Jones 
 helped Winifred into her chair, as they were 
 coming away, and they were both laughing 
 at the intense devotion with which young 
 Murray was regarding Miss Ellie, as he 
 gathered her skirts together for her. The 
 others all turned and looked at these four 
 with the sunshine forming a sort of glory 
 round them, and the beautiful view beyond. 
 " You should be painted like that, you four, 
 and so be immortalised for ever," said Miss 
 Murphy. Then they hurried on over the 
 hill top, and got behind the first range of 
 mountains. After all it was only wilder, 
 rockier country than before, interspersed 
 
 7 
 
106 Out in China 
 
 with bits of cultivation wrung from an un- 
 generous soil by a laborious peasantry, and 
 there in the distance in a fold of the valley 
 between the hills the Temple with its wide- 
 spreading, up-turned roof edges, its dull red 
 pillars, spacious courtyards and magnificent 
 trees in front. They settled at once to have 
 tea at the Temple. 
 
 " I am glad we are not going to sleep 
 here," said Mrs. Kitley, swallowing quickly 
 her third cup. " The priests seem very 
 surly even about hot water." 
 
 " They look suspicious certainly," said one 
 of the American officers, then as he spoke 
 broke off, a messenger arriving with a letter. 
 "Why, if this does not beat everything! 
 Here is an order from the Captain to return 
 at once. Mr. Greig, will you lend me that 
 charger of yours ? No ! Oh thank you, Mr. 
 Annesley, much obliged. You can keep my 
 chair. I must start at once, for 1 shall 
 be benighted as it is." And he rode away 
 in hot haste, and amidst a shower of jokes 
 and messages and grumblings. 
 
 " We had better get on to the Missionary 
 compound," said Annesley. I always like to 
 see my quarters for the night by daylight." 
 
 "Why here's another messenger," cried 
 Forbes. "Oh, my gun, by Jove! That's 
 the Number One Boy. Why, wherever is 
 that Ting chai gone to ! I have not seen 
 him for a long time." 
 
Gaily ! gaily ! 107 
 
 " Never mind him. Let's get on now," 
 from Annesley. "Any news." 
 
 " No — N-0-0 ! " Forbes had received a 
 paper, and looked thoughtful. "The ladies 
 could not go back to-night ? " 
 
 "No! Oh no! quite impossible," from 
 Annesley. "That stout Yank will be hard 
 put to it, and he's mounted. Whatever 
 you brought that great brute for," turning 
 fiercely upon Greig, " I can't think. You 
 might at least have brought an animal that 
 was decently broken. At all events mash 
 one of the ladies with his heels, if you must 
 mash someone. I don't want a great brute 
 on the top of me." 
 
 " He goes like the wind," murmured little 
 Greig. 
 
 " I wish you'd let me ride him," cried Miss 
 Murphy suddenly, forsaking the handsome 
 Jones. 
 
 "Oh, I couldn't. He wouldn't bear a lady 
 on his back. As it is it is all I can do to hop 
 up whilst the Mafoo blinds him." 
 
 "Ye — es, he is a kicker and no mistake. 
 But I could hop up too, and I'd make him fly 
 and no mistake, if once I was up where you 
 are." And the two went on bantering one 
 another. No one was quite sure which the 
 governess meant to accept, but the gener- 
 ally received opinion was that she meant 
 to close with one man or the other at that 
 picnic. 
 
108 Out in China 
 
 " Even betting I should say," murmured 
 Mr. Kitley. 
 
 But everyone seemed suddenly grown 
 cross and disagreeable, and there was no 
 attempt at conversation, as they all hurried on 
 from the beautifully picturesque but filthy 
 Temple, to the somewhat oppressively clean 
 and quite unpicturesque Missionary com- 
 pound. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 FACE TO FACE WITH REALITY 
 
 Next morning however there were no traces 
 of crossness. Everyone had slept well. 
 And people were all calling out and laughing 
 to each other from adjacent rooms. Mr. 
 Kitley could not find his sponge and was 
 most comical about it. Everyone in the 
 whole party offered to lend him a sponge, but 
 he would not be satisfied without his own. 
 In the end the Brown brothers had to slip 
 out of the room one draped in a sheet, and 
 the other in a blanket, while Mrs. Kitley in 
 Jones' overcoat for dressing gown went in 
 and looked for it. And then it was found 
 just where she had always said it was. " But 
 Mr. Kitley never can find his things," she 
 explained. 
 
 " My dear, what would be the use of a wife, 
 if a man could get on just as well without 
 one ? " retorted Mr. Kitley. And this 
 hugely delighted everyone. 
 
no Out in China 
 
 The two unmarried girls were superintend- 
 ing the breakfast table. Winifred was 
 decorating the room. She had got great 
 bunches of Pampas grass, and tied them to 
 the back of the different chairs, with here 
 and there a waving bamboo in between. The 
 Coolies had carried in rose bushes in pots 
 and mounted them on barrels of different 
 heights. Two tall Daturas with their long, 
 white, trumpet like flowers greeted people as 
 they came in, and grouped by the window 
 were Larkspurs and Oleander bushes with 
 the bright morning light shining through 
 their petals. The table was like a parterre 
 of delicate, white and pink waxy begonias, 
 while from the ceiling hung a great branch of 
 large rosy Oleander flowers and ferns. 
 
 "It looks like a wedding breakfast," said 
 Mr. Kitley. " Only who is the bride ? " At 
 which it was noticeable that two ladies blushed 
 and looked down. Jones too looked embar- 
 rassed. " The tall one is making the run- 
 ning," whispered Mr. Kitley to his wife. 
 " One comfort with our little Ellie is there's 
 no doubt who it is, and he is a right down 
 good fellow too. Do you think she has said 
 yes yet r 
 
 " Now don't you tease," said his wife. 
 "Or who knows you may spoil everything. 
 These sort of things are very delicate." 
 
 " I should think I knew that. Why have 
 I not had to leave my business for two days 
 
Face to Face with Reality 1 1 1 
 
 on purpose ! And I don't know how many- 
 times we have not asked him to dinner," 
 murmured her husband, whose one delight it 
 always was to ask men to dinner, and who 
 rejoiced in Ellie as an excuse. 
 
 They sat over their breakfast, and 
 wandered away from it, and came back 
 again. The room was so like a fairy bower 
 they did not like to leave it, and there was 
 no hurry about going back, for it would be 
 better to wait till it was a little cooler every- 
 one said, and after all there was nothing to 
 be done in the neighbourhood, now they had 
 seen the Temple. 
 
 Someone tried the harmonium. " But we 
 don't want to sing hymns," cried that tall, 
 foolish Jones. Then someone begged the 
 governess to recite. She had always hither- 
 to refused, though she had arrived with a 
 great reputation for reciting. Now, however, 
 she began at once : 
 
 " She was only a woman, famish'd for loving, 
 Mad for devotion and such slight things, 
 And he was a very great musician, 
 
 And used to finger his fiddle-strings. 
 
 Her heart's sweet gamut is cracking and breaking 
 For a look, for a touch, — for such slight things ; 
 
 But he's such a very great musician 
 
 Grimacing and fing'ring his fiddle strings." 
 
 She recited it with all the passion of which 
 the words were capable. And a profound 
 stillness fell upon the company. Forbes was 
 
1 1 2 Out in China 
 
 astonished. He had never imagined there 
 was so much in Miss Murphy, she must be 
 only playing with Jones he felt sure now. 
 The woman who could recite that poem 
 would certainly prefer little Greig with his 
 excitable brain and all his big ambitions. 
 As for Winifred he did not dare look at her, 
 as he felt rather than saw, that she was 
 sitting with averted face, gazing out on the 
 sunshine through the flowers. 
 
 Two of the Missionary children had been 
 looking in from the verandah through the wide 
 open windows, pretty, rosy-cheeked, little 
 blue-eyed creatures, who could not, however, 
 speak a word of English. Now they flitted 
 away like two little blue and white butterflies 
 in their blue frocks and white pinafores. 
 And it became evident the Missionary flit- 
 ting had begun. 
 
 " Will you lock the door and give the key 
 to our Evangelist in that house over there ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Annesley, the one applied 
 to. 
 
 Just then the governess, who had been 
 laughing at Jones asking, why on earth did 
 she recite such a rotten thing? "A fellow 
 doesn't want to hear about musicians, and 
 what woman ever was mad with devotion ? " 
 etcetera. Just then she felt to her surprise 
 a slight, nervous hand on the other side slide 
 gently into hers, and holding it like steel, as 
 it did so ! And looking up she saw the face 
 
Face to Face with Reality 1 1 3 
 
 of young Greig, white and taut, and breath- 
 ing rather than saying ' Come ! ' " 
 
 Without a word, without a look at any- 
 one else she rose and went with him, he 
 still holding her hand. He helped her up on 
 to the window sill of a side window, and they 
 passed out through it, as if it were the most 
 natural thing in the world to do, through a 
 little courtyard at the back, through a back 
 door that was opened to them, when Greig 
 tapped upon it with his riding-whip. And 
 there outside was Greig's horse, held by two 
 frightened Mafoos and looking taller and 
 wickeder than ever. 
 
 " I'd better get on first," he said, still 
 speaking quite low. "Can you jump up by 
 my foot ! Catch on round my waist. We've 
 got to ride like grim death ! " 
 
 " Let me hold the reins," pleaded Miss 
 Murphy. " You've got to see to your 
 revolver. And the reins are rotten I know, 
 everything is in China. But I will take care 
 not to snap them. Forgive me ! but my 
 hand is lighter than yours." 
 
 That was all she said in that supreme 
 moment of their lives. The others left 
 behind staring at each other and still mute 
 with astonishment heard a great sound of 
 kicking and plunging ; then like a vision flew 
 past a galloping horse, with little Greig and 
 Miss Murphy with her arms round him 
 holding the reins, both with their faces quite 
 
1 1 4 Out in China 
 
 white and set, but the horse looking the most 
 desperate of the three. There was a little 
 murmur among the company in the prettily 
 decorated room. But no one said anything 
 articulate. 
 
 " What is to be done, Annesley ? " asked 
 Forbes, speaking very quietly. Every one 
 seemed to understand everything at once. 
 There was no need to explain or ask 
 questions. They all knew little Greig had 
 for a long time been excited about secret 
 societies. He might be foolish now. But 
 if — The ladies straightened themselves some- 
 what, otherwise the only thing that was 
 noticeable was how still they kept, and 
 that they none of them said anything 
 except Mrs. Kitley, who whispered to her 
 husband : 
 
 " Are all the things put together ? Perhaps 
 I had better see." 
 
 "Oh, never mind about the things," 
 growled Mr. Kitley under his breath, and she 
 too remained still. 
 
 " The Boys have seen to them, I expect," 
 said Forbes gently, and at that moment his 
 own number two appeared: "All Leady, 
 master. More better go." 
 
 "All right, Boy. Which way more better 
 go?" 
 
 " More better go nother load." 
 
 " Yes, just so, Boy. By — •" 
 
 And then the men stood together and 
 
Face to Face with Reality 1 1 5 
 
 minutely discussed roads, and the various 
 pros and cons. 
 
 " Big Knife men plenty that way," said the 
 Boy. But he showed no fear. No more did 
 any of the Chinese. Only they were all 
 ready, absolutely ready, as the Europeans got 
 into their Chairs and moved off. 
 
 " Oh, those rose bushes ! I forgot to have 
 them moved back! and I promised," exclaimed 
 Winifred, trying to stop her Chair. 
 
 "Nevermind! The Pratts won't mind if 
 they — do d — die," said Forbes, to his own 
 surprise rather stumbling over the word. 
 Then with a wintry sort of smile, " We can 
 send them others too, if — if we — are alive," 
 and he almost laughed. 
 
 Then Winifred let her sedan move on. 
 Somehow his arm had gone quite round her, 
 as he helped her in, and then his hands had 
 held hers locked for a moment's space, whilst 
 they looked into each other's eyes. It was 
 the first time they had looked at each other 
 since Miss Murphy's recitation, which now 
 seemed years ago. And neither of them had 
 spoken as they looked at each other. Little 
 Ellie and her lover had done just the same. 
 
 The curious part of it was no one spoke. 
 Only Mr. Kitley had patted Mrs. Kitley on 
 the shoulder, and smiled at her, as he helped 
 her in. 
 
 Jones at last broke the silence: "What 
 way did that horse go ? " 
 
1 1 6 Out in China 
 
 " My no savee. My think all-ee same way 
 we come. Plenty Big Knife man that way. 
 Plenty Big Knife man Temple inside." 
 
 " We ought not to abandon them," said 
 Jones, examining his gun. 
 
 " They have taken the matter into their 
 own hands. We cannot help them," said 
 Forbes. " Now all together! Some men in 
 front, and some behind. Ladies in the 
 middle, and don't stray please. Annesley, 
 though you are not mounted now, perhaps you 
 would rather go a little in front and warn us." 
 
 "Thank you, I think I'd just as soon ride 
 behind," said that gentleman somewhat 
 angrily. " If I'd got my horse now it would 
 be different," he muttered by way of explana- 
 tion, whilst the brothers Brown got their 
 Chairs carried to the front without a word. 
 
 Not one of their Chair coolies refused to 
 carry them, though they knew what they 
 were risking by doing so. Only the carrying 
 coolies all hurried off by what they called a 
 short cut. Forbes noticed it, but had not the 
 heart to stop them. What could the poor 
 creatures do to help anyone, without weapons 
 and heavily laden ? If they knew any way 
 to get themselves safe through, so be it ! 
 
 " It is all nonsense being afraid of the 
 Chinese. I never show fear," said Mr. 
 Annesley. " They are a set of cowards. 
 Curs I call them. Couldn't fight, if they 
 tried." 
 
Face to Face with Reality 1 1 7 
 
 Mrs. Kitley, to whom this remark was 
 apparently addressed, did not answer. She 
 was quietly squeezing her husband'3 hand. 
 He had held it out from his Chair to her, and 
 she was hugging it and pressing it alternately. 
 They did not pass for a specially loving couple, 
 he was not demonstrative, and she generally 
 rather snubbed him before other people. But 
 the moment had come, and their souls leapt 
 back to one another. She would not have 
 cried out for the world, and it was not her 
 fault that she was the last lady in the proces- 
 sion. Ellie, her sister, must of course be in 
 front of her, where she could keep an eye up- 
 on her, and Winifred's Chair was gleaming in 
 the van, Forbes only just ahead of it, some- 
 times alongside. Thus of the whole company 
 Jones brought up the rear. But though he 
 might be a fool he was no coward, and was 
 only longing for an encounter with the Big 
 Knives. 
 
 "I say what's that?" he suddenly cried 
 out. 
 
 There was something white fluttering aim- 
 lessly and helplessly among the rocks to one 
 side of them. The others, keeping a look 
 out ahead had not seen it. But Jones saw 
 it, and was out of his Chair at once, and with 
 his long stride beside it. 
 
 " Keep back, Mrs. Lindsay," he cried, 
 turning round with a brow like thunder. 
 For Winifred too had sprung out of her Chair, 
 
1 1 8 Out in China 
 
 and so swiftly that she was up with him al- 
 most at the same time with Forbes. 
 
 Young Jones was a good looking fellow, 
 remarkable really for nothing but his height, 
 but at that moment his brow looked so 
 awful in his wrath, that at once Winifred 
 stood still before him trembling and almost 
 crying even without Forbes' arm stretched 
 back to prevent her advance. " I thought 
 it was one of the little Missionary children," 
 she said half crying. 
 
 And there was Forbes murmuring : " Poor 
 little thing ! poor little thing ! " and almost 
 crying too. 
 
 He came back to her now, and held her 
 quite tight for a moment whilst she leant her 
 little white face against his shoulder, and her 
 eyes asked not her voice, " What is it ? " 
 
 " Only one of those poor, dear little children 
 we were playing with just now." 
 
 "Dead!" 
 
 "Dead!" 
 
 " Are you quite sure ? Can nothing be 
 done ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " But can you tell like that in one 
 minute ? " 
 
 Forbes moved uneasily. " Poor little 
 thing ! Poor, pretty, little thing ! " 
 
 "They have taken away the head," said 
 tall Jones with his brow looking like thunder. 
 
 Then Winifred trembled all over, and 
 
Face to Face with Reality 1 1 9 
 
 Forbes led her back to her chair, the others 
 all exclaiming and talking at once. Mr. 
 Kitley went and looked. " They have taken 
 away the head ! They have taken away the 
 head," repeated Jones. 
 
 " I have marked the spot," said Mr. 
 Annesley. " We'd better leave the poor 
 little thing lying there now, I think. We 
 don't know yet — " 
 
 " Here's a plaid to wrap it in. Put it in 
 my chair," said Forbes. " Man, we must do 
 as we'd be done by. If it were your child — " 
 
 The Chair coolies did not seem to like it, 
 but they had to submit, and Forbes' chair 
 was carried at the back now, while he walked 
 by Winifred's side. 
 
 It was then that everything seemed to 
 have finished and the whole party to have 
 entered upon a different life, where people 
 showed their real selves, and showed just 
 what they felt. Little Ellie and her lover 
 were no longer in doubt. They had em- 
 braced for the first time in public, she 
 sobbing in his arms, not in her sister's. No 
 one made any comment or seemed even to 
 notice it. Even her sister seemed to attach 
 no importance to it, saying only, " It must 
 have been a quick death, Ellie dear. 
 Probably the little dear hardly suffered, there 
 is no sign of struggle." But Ellie had 
 shuddered into her lover's embrace and made 
 no reply. 
 
120 Old in China 
 
 " Don't be frightened. Don't be afraid, 
 ladies. We are well-armed," said Forbes. 
 " Several of us are well-armed. They will 
 run before guns. Probably the Missionaries 
 had none ! " 
 
 " Poor beggars ! " said the elder of the 
 Brown brothers, coming back from having 
 lifted what was left of the little child into 
 Forbes' chair. None of them would suffer a 
 Chinese to touch the child now. The 
 Coolies could not understand why. They 
 too had been playing with the child in the 
 morning. 
 
 Then they came to something. The 
 ladies could not understand what it was. 
 They only saw freshly turned earth. Jones 
 striding on in front now was passing by this. 
 But the careful Brown brothers in earnest 
 consultation with their coolies called to 
 Forbes, and all the men clustered together, 
 and some Chinese, who had been hiding in 
 the neighbourhood, now joined their party. 
 And gradually ladies and all knew that earth 
 had been turned over a company of Chinese 
 Christians buried alive, because they would 
 not promise to recant. Some Chinese now 
 began trying to dig them out. " But it was 
 yesterday, and it can be of no use," said Mr. 
 Annesley. 
 
 " Yesterday ! when we were all so happy ! " 
 cried Winifred. " Thinking of nothing ! " 
 
 "Yesterday!" said Forbes, and groaned, 
 
Face to Face with Reality 121 
 
 " Oh God ! that it could come back to us ! 
 that we had turned back ! that I had never 
 agreed to start ! Lindsay was quite right. 
 Oh my God ! my God ! " 
 
 " Do you think He hears us ? " asked 
 Winifred. Her face had gone quite small, 
 as she looked up at him with her eyebrows 
 drawn quite straight now, and her eyes 
 shining like steel underneath. 
 
 " He must, if there is a God," said Forbes. 
 
 " But whether we are to live or die — our 
 times are in His hand ! That we know, and 
 that is all." 
 
 " I like to feel that," said Winifred. 
 " Here on this Chinese mountain side there 
 is nothing between us and God. I never 
 felt quite like that before." 
 
 On a sudden they all felt the same. For 
 the first time in their lives to each one the 
 people round about seemed to have become 
 unsubstantial almost unreal, and God alone 
 was real. The scales had fallen from their 
 eyes. 
 
 Then suddenly the Coolies put down the 
 sedan chairs, as with one accord, and ran — -ran 
 — and in one instant had disappeared from 
 sight, whilst the little company of Europeans 
 left behind became aware of a cloud of dust 
 cresting the side of the hill, along the top of 
 which their path lay. 
 
 " Save the women if you can ? " said the 
 elder of the Brown brothers. " We will 
 
122 Out in China 
 
 fight as long as our ammunition holds out. 
 Here ! your gun Forbes ! For my brother ! " 
 Then as the other hesitated. "Mrs. Lindsay 
 — you must ! " 
 
 In an instant Forbes had gathered her in 
 his arms, and was flying he knew not 
 whither. From behind they heard the re- 
 port of Jones' gun, Mr. Annesley's gun, the 
 Brown brothers. The Big Knife men had 
 evidently no guns. 
 
 At last Forbes had to put Winifred down, 
 panting, "Quickly — quickly!" Quickly — 
 quickly, half hauled, half climbing she raised 
 herself among one of the curious rock- 
 masses, that are such a marked feature in 
 that part of China. At last they found them- 
 selves in a hollow between the two crowning 
 rocks, hidden from sight below, and yet able 
 to command the situation for a long way 
 round. 
 
 "Why did we not think of something of 
 this kind sooner ? " groaned Forbes. 
 
 " But do you think anyone will ever come 
 out to get us away ? " asked Winifred. 
 
 He iooked hard at her thinking who could 
 come, who could not, and what the chances 
 were. To him who knew the situation they 
 seemed small. He climbed outwards, where 
 he could see more near at hand, yet still 
 without being seen himself. They heard no 
 more firing. What had happened ? Had 
 they run so far, or — had the rest of the party 
 
Face to Face with Reality 123 
 
 been captured— been — or had they fought 
 their way through ? "I don't believe the 
 Browns would ever give in," thought Forbes, 
 " or Annesley, when he was put to it, though 
 he is a nervous man beforehand. Jones — 
 he has such long legs he might try to run." 
 Then he went over and over it. Ought he 
 to have come away and left them ? Of 
 course the younger Brown was the crack shot 
 of the community. But — he glanced back 
 at Winifred lying in the hollow of the rock, 
 where he had left her. It seemed now as if 
 it had been a sudden impulse to fly with her 
 to the other end of the world. And here he 
 had landed her on the top of an isolated rock 
 mass without a notion what was to be done 
 next. Her hat had fallen off, and with her 
 cheek resting against the hard rock she 
 looked such a little thing in a wisp of white 
 lace and embroideries. How could it be 
 possible ever to get her through the Big 
 Knives ? And who was there who could 
 fight their way out to look for them ? Was 
 not his place too in the Consulate ? Ought 
 he not at any cost to return at once ? Duty ! 
 Duty and love ! And on his indecision and 
 anxiety the sun burnt down, as also on 
 Winifred's little head bare among the rocks. 
 Forbes too was without a hat. But he 
 thought now he could manage to place her 
 head in a cranny in the shade, and he went 
 back to her to arrange it. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TWO ON ONE HORSE 
 
 When Lindsay was left standing rooted in 
 the roadway, he never knew how he got 
 away. But he must have done so. For he 
 next found himself in his office. He knew 
 that, because it was there Mrs. Annesley 
 found him, as he almost feared, with his face 
 buried in his hands on the office desk. But 
 if it were so, she did not show any concern, 
 or seem to think it remarkable in any way. 
 " What can I do for you, Mrs. Annesley?" 
 " I did not find you at your own house. 
 So as you had not gone home for luncheon, 
 I followed you here," panted the stout lady. 
 At any other time it would not have 
 seemed a particularly lucid explanation, for 
 he and Mrs. Annesley were by no means in 
 the habit of meeting every day. But now, 
 he just said, "Quite so, quite so," as he 
 leant back in his office chair, balancing his 
 pen on the top of a pencil. The pen would 
 
Two on One Horse 1 2 5 
 
 not balance. It never would. But it was a 
 little habit of his to try to make it. 
 
 "You have read the paper?" said Mrs. 
 Annesley. 
 
 "Oh, yes — yes, I have read the paper." 
 
 " My Amah — " began Mrs. Annesley. 
 
 " Your Amah — oh, yes, yes ! " repeated 
 Mr. Lindsay. 
 
 " I say, Lindsay," cried a man, breaking 
 into the office as it were. " We want to call 
 a meeting. And we think your office the 
 most convenient place. Hullo! you here, 
 Mrs. Annesley ! Never mind ! You are a 
 woman of sense, aren't you ? " 
 
 Then the office suddenly filled with men — 
 all the men of the place, a German clerk, a 
 Greek merchant, two Russians, all the English 
 community to a man, the men of the Outdoor 
 Customs Staff, keeping carefully by the door, 
 finally the Commissioner of Customs himself 
 with the Indoor Staff behind him. They did 
 not turn Mrs. Annesley out. They did not 
 stop to sit down. At the best there were but 
 three chairs. But someone moved that the 
 Volunteer force be reorganised, and every- 
 one said, "Hear! Hear! and then someone 
 said : " And a rescue party ! " 
 
 " To start at once ! " 
 
 "Apply to the gunboat." 
 
 " The Captain has already recalled his 
 two officers. Afraid of international com- 
 plications." 
 
126 Out in China 
 
 All the men glared at each other on hear- 
 ing this. An American missionary looked 
 mortified. He had a revolver in his hand, 
 and was the most energetic man there. 
 Lindsay looked from one to the other. He 
 could not have gone whiter, Mrs. Annesley 
 thought, without fainting. He took down a 
 gun, and said he had another at his house. 
 Then all the talk was of cartridges, whether 
 they fitted or did not fit. A man in the 
 Outdoor Customs had once been apprenticed 
 to a gunsmith. He began to talk of "oil, and 
 not too much." A man in the Indoor Staff 
 had served in the Militia. He was voted 
 Captain by general acclamation. They were 
 to start before day break. Surely the United 
 States gunboat would render some assistance 
 "to rescue a British Consul in imminent 
 danger of his life," suggested someone. And 
 they wrote a letter to that effect to the 
 American Commander, then spoilt the effect 
 by calling in a body before he had received it. 
 
 Mrs. Annesley went home at last. It 
 never appeared quite evident what she had 
 come for. Her man-servant received her 
 with great gravity. " My thinkee master 
 no come back," he said, and proceeded to 
 lock and bolt every door and window in the 
 most ostentatious style. Next day she went 
 over to the mainland again. It seemed 
 impossible to remain upon the Island. But 
 this time she went to the Commissioner's 
 
Two on One Horse 127 
 
 office. The rescue party had started, sure 
 enough. " I hope they may all get back 
 safe," said the Commissioner. "We have 
 one of our men there, young Greig, so I 
 think the I.G. will consider the risk justified, 
 but I begged them not to venture too much. 
 No ! I have not gone with the party. 
 Someone must stay behind and see after 
 the office. The harbourmaster and I are 
 running the Customs for to-day." He him- 
 self was a man over sixty, and the harbour- 
 master, though not quite so advanced in 
 years was stout and difficult to move. 
 
 Presently the Commissioner's wife came in, 
 and proposed that they should all have tiffin 
 in the office. " We can't go back and know 
 nothing," she said. " I only wonder you 
 don't make us both add up accounts for you 
 at once." 
 
 " I have too much respect for my accounts," 
 he said. And Mrs. Annesley felt grateful, 
 that they both thus made little jokes as if to 
 keep up her spirits, and yet let her alone. 
 All the time there were alarming rumours 
 coming in. She knew it by their faces but 
 she did not care to hear what they were. 
 The Commissioner was always going to the 
 window, and walking out on to the verandah 
 beyond, and looking out. The Harbour- 
 master came in once or twice, and urged the 
 ladies to return to the Island. "The people 
 are getting excited," he said, 
 
128 Out in China 
 
 " Oh let them be ! Let the ladies be ! 
 Our boatmen are quite to be depended on," 
 said the Commissioner. " And I see they 
 are keeping the way to the boat clear. Mrs. 
 Annesley can't go back, and eat her heart 
 out alone," he added in an undertone. And 
 so the day wore on. 
 
 They were already at tea, when they heard 
 a great noise in the street outside, and the 
 two ladies were frightened, and Mrs. Annesley 
 began to cry at last. The Commissioner ran 
 this time to the window and out on to the 
 verandah. And at the same time two of the 
 Customs boatmen actually rushed into the 
 room, their faces crimson with excitement, 
 announcing the return of their ' Great Man ' — 
 Mr. Greig. "Come here, my dear," called 
 the Commissioner from the verandah. "Come 
 and see ! Look at your governess ! Come 
 Mrs. Annesley ! " And for a moment they 
 all stood in the verandah, and simply stared at 
 the funny figure the young woman presented. 
 Her skirts had almost disappeared, turned 
 and twisted round her waist, her hair had 
 fallen down, her hat had fallen off. But 
 never had any women even in her best clothes 
 looked more completely untroubled about her 
 appearance than did the generally very self 
 conscious Miss Murphy, as Greig with some 
 difficulty swung himself out of the saddle, and 
 then actually lifted her down. He did an 
 extraordinary thing too, He held her in his 
 
Two on One Horse 129 
 
 arms and kissed her passionately in the 
 presence of them and all the people before he 
 set her down. " Brave girl, you have saved 
 both our lives," he said. "You are a brave 
 girl indeed." His face was so white and 
 drawn that it terrified them even to look at 
 him, and the trio looking down grew graver 
 at each word. Mrs. Annesley ceased crying, 
 and the Commissioner put his arm round his 
 wife and led her back into the room. Then 
 the panting Harbour-master and little Greig 
 himself appeared coming upstairs, carrying 
 the governess nowperfectlyinsensible between 
 them. And as they laid her on the sofa little 
 Greig reeled and fell on the floor. The 
 Commissioner ran for whiskey, and the ladies 
 for water to throw over them. And young 
 Greig came to first, sitting on the floor quite 
 still swallowing the whiskey, but saying 
 nothing — nothing. 
 
 At last he spoke. " I know nothing of the 
 others," he said. " I had but the one horse. 
 And I saved her, or rather she saved me," 
 and he took her hand and laid his forehead 
 against it, and then kissed it in the presence 
 of them all. And none of them saw anything 
 inappropriate in his doing so, not even the 
 Commissioner's wife, though she naturally 
 felt responsible for her governess. When 
 the latter revived she spoke of course ; 
 " The horse ! Has anyone seen to the horse ? " 
 was what she said. 
 
130 Out in China 
 
 " Yes — yes of course," said the Commis- 
 sioner, and gave orders, and went down 
 himself to see them carried out. "You just 
 stop here," he said to young Greig, who still 
 pale as death, had risen at once with a 
 "The horse — saved both our lives." "Yes, I 
 know, I understand," said the Commissioner. 
 " He shall be treated like a Prince." 
 
 " And my husband ? " asked Mrs. Annesley 
 at last. 
 
 " We left them — all there — all safe when 
 we left them," said the governess. " I don't 
 know. There were crowds of men with big 
 knives. We galloped right through them — 
 right through," and only now she shewed a 
 cut above her ancle, which set the women to 
 crying and "my dearing," while sending for 
 a doctor. 
 
 " He too ! " gasped the governess, and only 
 then they became aware of the condition of 
 young Greig's left arm. " He saved mine," 
 she whispered. " So many of them ! terrible ! 
 terrible. If it hadn't been for the horse — he 
 kicked and plunged so — we could never have 
 got through. I found a way of making him 
 kick. I — they were frightened out of their 
 wits. But — but the others ? Can anything 
 be done to save them ? Oh I know dear Mrs. 
 Lindsay must die. I saw it in her face, when 
 we started." Then she heard of the relief 
 party, and lay back with closed eyes, but only 
 to start up again crying out : " They were 
 
Two on One Horse 131 
 
 all after us in the city again — all — all ! It is 
 not safe here I tell you. They followed us to 
 the very gates. Do you not hear them 
 shrieking and yelling ? Oh, I do ! I do ! It is 
 not safe. Let us cross over to the island. 
 Let us get away. Away ! away ! " and she 
 sprang up from the sofa, and seized youug 
 Greig by the hand. " Do not let us die here ! 
 Not here ! " she cried. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ALONE TOGETHER ! 
 
 " My darling, try to hold out a little longer." 
 It was Forbes' voice, but it hardly sounded 
 like his. There was a singing in her ears, 
 had her whole body seemed swaying back- 
 wards and forwards with the singing. They 
 had remained on their rock perch till night- 
 fall. Then Forbes, having taken very care- 
 ful bearings of their situation by daylight, 
 they had come down, and Winifred in the 
 delicate little beaded shoes, and the exquisitely 
 fine drawn linen and lace dress had tried to 
 stumble along with the help of his hand. 
 Her shoes were gone before she had taken 
 many steps, and her feet bleeding before even 
 they reached the dreadful spot, where still 
 stood the Sedan chairs, just as they had left 
 them, and the dead child in the last. And in 
 the horror of seing it all over again Forbes was 
 tempted for a moment to insist on Winifred's 
 returning to their hiding place, where with 
 
Alone Together! 133 
 
 cushions and the rug he might make her fairly 
 comfortable in that hollow among the rocks, 
 and himself go on alone and seek assistance. 
 But he knew that Winifred would sooner die 
 than wrap herself in that rug now, and he 
 did not know if he could even steel himself 
 to the leaving her alone, much less if she could 
 stand it. The company of Sedan chairs 
 looked very ghostly standing out on the hill- 
 side alone. They lingered hand in hand and 
 looked at them. 
 
 Suddenly Winifred gave a little cry, low 
 but of extreme horror. " My foot is wet — 
 wet," she moaned. 
 
 " My dear child your whole dress is wring- 
 ing wet. I did not know of this," said 
 Forbes feeling down with great concern be- 
 fore arriving at her foot. The cool night air 
 was blowing right through them on the 
 mountain top, and he looked round anxiously, 
 thinking what he could do to protect the 
 slender form beside him. His own white 
 coat would be of so little avail, but as he pro- 
 ceeded to take it off he saw with horror 
 like hers and only less than Winifred's, that 
 his hand was red with blood. What had 
 happened along this awful mountain top ? 
 They stumbled on together, looking anxi- 
 ously before they trod now, Winifred wear- 
 ing his coat, and all her pretty lace draperies, 
 in which she had felt such pride, caught up 
 over her left arm. 
 
134 Out in China 
 
 Presently they saw something. " Let me 
 go first. Let me see what it is first, Wini- 
 fred." 
 
 " No ! no ! hand in hand," pleaded Wini- 
 fred. " I dare not be left alone. Not for 
 one minute. Not now ! here ! " and she 
 clung to him. 
 
 Thus together theyadvanced and looked up- 
 on one of the most awful sights that man could 
 look upon. Hanging from a treeand shimmer- 
 ing in the moonlight, were three lifeless bodies 
 of women apparently stripped naked, wounded 
 in every horrible way, and split open, as fish 
 are split open, and hung upon a tree to dry. 
 Before Forbes had taken in the details, Wini- 
 fred had fallen as if lifeless. His first duty was 
 to carry her away — away — away, as far as 
 possible from the ghastly scene. He was 
 as a man mad now- — mad with horror of what 
 had been and what might be. He stumbled 
 and fell, vomiting fearfully. That relieved 
 him. And he picked her up, and ran on 
 again, carrying, or dragging Winifred, first 
 this way and then that. Suddenly through 
 a break in the intervening range he caught 
 a glimpse of the sea, the large Chinese city, 
 and — oh ! how wonderful it seemed to see 
 them again ! — the flower-girt, familiar villas 
 on the Island they had left but yesterday. 
 Sobbing, sick, trembling with cold in his turn 
 now, he yet rememberedt that daylight must 
 come soon, and that the necessary thing was 
 
Alone Together! 135 
 
 to hide — to hide anywhere. He saw a miser- 
 able Chinese hut near by. Would the people 
 have pity upon them ? 
 
 But no ! They would not open their door, 
 only shouted from inside and barricaded 
 themselves. The door of a shed near by 
 stood half open, and into that he managed to 
 squeeze himself and Winifred. In the shelter 
 on the straw there she came to, but only to 
 cry out with horror, or to sob convulsively. 
 She had not seen as much as Forbes even, 
 but she had seen too much to be capable of 
 forgetting it even for a moment. " Who 
 were they ? " she asked. " Who were 
 they ? " 
 
 " Hush — hush ! We must not wake the 
 people in the cottage. Hush, dearest! My 
 darling, try to rest." 
 
 " But who — who — who ? " and again a 
 terrible burst of sobbing. 
 
 " I don't know," said Forbes humbly. " I 
 don't see how anyone could know. It doesn't 
 seem right even to try to think quite. Dear- 
 est Winifred, we are in a very evil case. I 
 don't know if we can win through alive. I 
 don't know if we even either of us wish to 
 now. But if you could say a prayer — if we 
 could both pray together — " 
 
 Then to his surprise she raised herself out 
 of the straw at once, and keeling with bowed 
 face and outstretched hands prayed aloud 
 with a fervour and a passion that at first as- 
 
136 Out in China 
 
 tonished him, then carried him along on the 
 wings of her prayer. It was not for deliver- 
 ance she prayed, not for life, but for comfort 
 for all those left behind, and for forgiveness 
 for themselves for what they had done, and 
 not done, if she had not loved Lindsay 
 enough, or him, Forbes too much. " For I 
 have ioved," she broke off and said. "I know 
 it now. I did not know it before — not quite. 
 But it is that which has made life so beautiful, 
 and yet perhaps it was wrong." And he said 
 nothing then, as she prayed they both might 
 be forgiven where they had done amiss. 
 After that they fell asleep, worn out too 
 utterly to be even afraid. But before the 
 daylight Forbes roused himself and they stole 
 away, and hid again among some Indian 
 corn then. They could eat this, and Forbes 
 persuaded Winifred to let him leave her at 
 last, whilst he would return to the cottage in 
 broad daylight, and see if by the light of day 
 he could not obtain some help from the 
 people. Winifred made no objection to his 
 leaving her now, but as he pressed her 
 hands he was horrified to find how they 
 burnt his. Her head was burning too. The 
 Indian corn offered but little protection from 
 the sun, and it was evident she was already 
 in high fever and only cared now to sleep. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE RESCUE PARTY 
 
 The relief party was a very international one. 
 The Customs men, to begin with, numbered 
 amongst them a Dane with a huge dog, a 
 Japanese and a German, besides two English- 
 men, of whom one was Irish, and this last 
 had not made sure his cartridges fitted before 
 he started. He said he would chance it now. 
 From the American man-of-war only the 
 Doctor had been allowed to come. He was 
 supposed to be strictly non-combatant. But 
 he, with his brother officers' connivance, was 
 so hung round with weapons, that he might 
 almost be supposed to count for a dozen. " I 
 guess my Captain wouldn't mean me to get 
 shot without a try for it," he drawled out with 
 an attempt at cheeriness. 
 
 The other men however looked at Lindsay 
 and did not respond. Lindsay had lived 
 through that night of inaction somehow, 
 thinking always how, if anything — how he 
 
 9 
 
138 Out in China, 
 
 ever could tell the Winifred he — remembered, 
 what had become of the Winifred she had 
 entrusted to him to be his wife. His wife ! 
 his wife ! Good God ! that child ! and per- 
 haps dead ! dying ! frightened ! so frightened. 
 Poor child ! poor child ! He had wept over 
 her during the night yet always with a terrible 
 further thought of that other Winifred, who 
 must be told, who had such a tender heart. 
 " She would feel it so." Lindsay had said to 
 himself again and again during the night. 
 Now, with a felt hat pushed well down over 
 his forehead he walked along, his eyes on the 
 ground, stumbling occasionally. They had 
 all been carried out as far as they cared to 
 ask their Coolies to take them, and when the 
 company got out, and proceeded to march, to 
 the surprise of everyone Lindsay's Number 
 One Boy emerged from a closed chair, and 
 proceeded to walk too, close by his master's 
 side. "What! you here Boy. I never told 
 you to come," and Lindsay held out his hand 
 to him. The Boy hesitated, surprised for a 
 moment, then he too held out his hand some- 
 what awkwardly, and the two men shook 
 hands for the first time — after all those years 
 together. 
 
 " My thinkee you must wantchee my, 
 Master," said the Boy apologetically, and 
 held out his hand to help occasionally as his 
 Master stumbled. He had already signed to 
 one of the Chair coolies to walk on the other 
 
The Rescue Party 139 
 
 side and offer his shoulder as a support. But 
 it was curious to see how he, a house servant 
 who never walked, and in his ill suited Chinese 
 shoes too, got on better over the mountains 
 than the Europeans in their first class shoot- 
 ing boots. Lindsay's household it appeared 
 had all turned out to look for their Mississy, 
 as they called her. Chair coolies, boat coolies 
 all were there armed with knives, and those 
 terrible three pronged forks, with which 
 Chinese mangle their victims so horribly 
 before killing them. Only the Number Two 
 Boy had been obliged to remain to look after 
 the house. The Number One Boy carried 
 nothing apparently but a long stick. But he 
 was invaluable. Again and again he de- 
 spatched the Lindsay coolies on ahead singly 
 or in couples to gather information, and, when 
 they only encountered stolidity or short 
 answers, he with his air of authority and 
 superior Chinese at once commanded respect, 
 and came back with information. Without 
 these Chinese the party would have done 
 nothing, for the people they met were all pre- 
 pared to fly at the very sight of a foreigner, 
 afraid of being suspected of having dealings 
 with them. And the information brought in 
 explained this alarm. Big Knife men were 
 burying the native Christians alive, cutting 
 foreigners in pieces. All the Missionaries 
 the peasants said were killed, all. All the 
 foreigners upon the mountains the peasants 
 
140 Out in China 
 
 said were dead, except a wonderful horse, of 
 which they told strange tales, that it had eight 
 legs and two riders, and would only tread up- 
 on living men, and brought death and 
 destruction wherever it went. 
 
 " I don't believe a word of it all," growled 
 the Consular constable. " It is all just a pack 
 of lies. The Chinese are mostly all liars for 
 what I can see. A set of cowards too ! afraid 
 of a horse ! I daresay the Big Knives have 
 knifed one man, and very likely he is not 
 dead." 
 
 " No use for me then," said the Doctor 
 again with an attempt at brightening up the 
 party, that once more missed fire. 
 
 "The great question is about the roads," 
 said Lindsay speaking at last. He was 
 perfectly calm and collected, whilst they all 
 stood and discussed the matter aided by the 
 coolies and their information. 
 
 " We are too small a party to divide," said 
 the late Militia officer, whom they had elected 
 to command them. " I think they would be 
 sure not to come back the way they seem to 
 have gone, if only because of that long hill. 
 But of course, if we go the way they are not 
 coming back, we should be sure to miss 
 them." 
 
 A boy had been picked up, and was now 
 joined to the company. The boy in consider- 
 ation of being promised a sum of money 
 down, together with a place as gardener on 
 
The Rescue Party 141 
 
 the Island, where he thought he might be 
 safe from the Big Knives, confided to them 
 that there were still some foreigners upon the 
 mountain, and he undertook to lead the way 
 to them. 
 
 He bade them go to the right. To do so 
 the shortest way was up a very steep hill. 
 Lindsay made a bee line for the summit at 
 once. " Provided we meet no Big Knives 
 just now," puffed the German. " Stones 
 alone would do for us now." The German 
 had not wanted to come on the relief 
 excursion. He said when he entered the 
 Customs it was to avoid military service at 
 home. So why should he be expected to 
 volunteer for it in China? He was quite 
 ready to help to defend the Customs premises, 
 if necessary, but he did not think the 
 Commissioner was justified in requiring him 
 to go soldiering right across China, and 
 treating it too, as if he were giving them a 
 holiday and doing their work for them. 
 
 The Dane said he, for his part, was glad to 
 give his dog a run. One or two of the 
 younger clerks began to skylark. They did 
 not believe, they said, there were any Big 
 Knives anywhere. 
 
 Then suddenly they all stood still. It was 
 remarkable what an unwillingness that com- 
 pany of men of mixed nationalities shewed to 
 advance. And yet it was evidently not fear 
 that held them spell bound, for it was easy to 
 
I4 2 Out in China 
 
 see there was nothing living in front of them. 
 In the end it was all the Chinese coolies 
 together, who walked first, the little company 
 of foreigners following at a considerable 
 interval with the American doctor well ahead 
 of their group, evidently bent on examining 
 professionally. Yet even he broke down. 
 Whilst as to the skylarking clerks they turned 
 their heads away, and red all over, felt that 
 was no sight for men to see. Whilst the 
 Dane walked quickly away with his dog, 
 holding him by the collar very firmly. 
 
 The Number One Boy had taken hold of 
 his Master's arm, " Better no you see, 
 Master. No can belong Mississy." 
 
 " I must see, Boy. It is my duty," in the 
 hollow tones of the man whom the Boy had 
 obeyed for over twenty years, and together 
 they went forward. The bodies were 
 wounded in a hundred places, gashed by 
 tridents, cut with blunt knives — eyes pulled 
 out — ears cut off — and other more dreadful 
 mutilations, and beneath them piled up lay an 
 arm — a leg — a hand — a heart — entrails — and 
 gnawed — gnawed by human teeth as the 
 Doctor was ascertaining. 
 
 But who could ascertain anything ? The 
 smell- — the sight was so offensive most of the 
 men were already vomiting, whilst from a bush 
 a Coolie was disentangling a scrap of muslin 
 they all remembered as a bit of Miss Ellie's 
 dress. Two men sat down and cried. The 
 
The Rescue Party 143 
 
 others' faces were almost as awful to look 
 upon as the sight they were contemplating. 
 But most of them were averting their eyes, 
 as knowing the poor murdered ladies would 
 have wished it. 
 
 "We must return here later to give them 
 burial," said the leader of the company. " Is 
 it — is Mrs. Lindsay — " 
 
 " No, I am sure she is not," said the 
 Doctor. 
 
 " I don't see how anyone can be quite sure," 
 said Lindsay, putting a great constraint upon 
 himself and touching the hands of the 
 murdered women one by one. Then as he 
 dropped them with a deep sigh, " No, it is not 
 Winifred." But he looked hopelessly at the 
 heap of mangled remains. " Anyway we had 
 better go on and see — if anyone is alive." 
 
 " Belong Missionary. My savee belong 
 Missionary," persisted the Boy. Then the 
 Coolie with the bit of Miss Ellie's dress 
 shewed it rather sadly, and the Dane's dog 
 came back with a pink bow in his mouth. 
 And they all looked at one another. 
 
 There was no cursing — not a swear-word. 
 These men were in the habit of using them ; 
 they knew none adequate to the occasion 
 now. 
 
 "Let us go on. Forward, gentlemen!" 
 Just then there was a cry from another direc- 
 tion, and a coolie was seen running towards 
 them, and beckoning to them to come on. 
 
144 Out in China 
 
 They went on and saw all the Sedan chairs 
 still standing, as they had been left, Winifred's 
 glittering poles and rose-satin cushions some- 
 what in front. Lindsay bent and kissed them 
 as he passed. After that several of the others 
 did likewise. Even the Chinese coolies bent 
 in passing, thinking it was some ceremony to 
 be gone through. But they did not presume 
 to touch the cushions. Then a fresh burst of 
 horror, as their young leader, late of the 
 Militia, walked first and unrolled the rug, 
 discovering the headless body of a little girl 
 of six. It was not mutilated in any other 
 way. There was the little blue frock, and 
 the white pinafore, with the little feet in their 
 neat white socks and brown shoes, and the 
 little hands all creased as childhood's hand's 
 are apt to be and — only the head gone ! A 
 Chinese coolie stroked the child's hand. 
 
 "How dare you! how dare you, you 
 Chinese devil ! " cried the German, " How 
 dare you touch the hand of an European 
 child ? Curse you ! curse you ! curse you ! " 
 and he himself knelt and kissed the child's 
 hand, washing it with his tears, and drying it 
 with his pocket handkerchief. 
 
 It was one of Lindsay's most trusty coolies, 
 who had done the awful deed, and the Boy 
 hastened to explain, as he said to his master : 
 " That belong German man — he no savee 
 anything. Englishman can understand, he 
 savee coolie velly solly small Mississy." 
 
The Rescue Party 145 
 
 The coolie slunk abashed to the rear, but 
 he was a father himself, and he could not 
 refrain from another fond, lingering look at 
 the poor child. He had known her well, 
 nursed her as a baby and carried her on his 
 back only the other day. One of the other 
 men guessed, and asked, and explained it to 
 the German who had become hysterical, and 
 walked on now, leaning on the other's arm. 
 " I never would be a soldier. I cannot bear 
 the blood," said the latter, blowing his nose 
 vigorously. 
 
 " That was Forbes' rug," said Lindsay's 
 calm, dry tones. "He must have wrapped the 
 dead child in it. No Chinaman would have 
 done that. I gather they must have come 
 up while the Big Knives were still killing, 
 and put them to flight." 
 
 "Why leave the chairs, then ?" 
 
 "Coolie all lunned away," interrupted the 
 Boy. "My savee. My have hear talkee." 
 It now appeared one of the coolies, who had 
 run away, was in their party, and presently 
 another turned up, and another. They said 
 the party of foreigners had gone in this 
 direction, and killed plenty of Chinese. The 
 rescue party hastened forward, and presently 
 the way was marked by Chinese corpses. 
 Then after a time someone thought he heard 
 ' Cooee.' " Mrs Kitley ! That is the way 
 she always calls." And rushing forward they 
 presently came upon her flying down the hill 
 
146 Out in China 
 
 to greet them, and falling into the arms of the 
 first man she encountered, who hugged her 
 and kissed her before he knew what he was 
 doing. It was the silent Dane. 
 
 " Mr. Kitley and Mr. Annesley are on the 
 other side lying watching with their guns," 
 she said. " I saw you from the top of the 
 hill. Have you seen Ellie ? " 
 
 "No — N-oo. And where is Mrs. Lindsay?" 
 
 " She and Mr. Forbes are somewhere to- 
 gether, I think — I hope," said Mrs. Kitley. 
 " He ran off carrying her, when — But Ellie 
 was with us. Mr. Kitley took my hand and 
 we ran together, and Mr. Annesley came after 
 us. We thought — Mr. Murray was taking 
 care of Ellie. And we have never seen her 
 again. The Big Knives ran away when the 
 Englishmen began to fire. We killed several," 
 said Mrs. Kitley proudly. " But where are 
 they all, the two Mr. Browns, and Mr. Jones, 
 and Mr. Murray and Ellie ? Are they all 
 together." 
 
 " I daresay," said someone. " Don't you 
 go now, Mrs. Kitley. Some of our party 
 will go on and fetch your husband and 
 Annesley." 
 
 " Aren't you very hungry ? " 
 
 " Do have some whiskey." 
 
 " Here's a sandwich." 
 
 " Which way do you think Forbes and 
 Mrs. Lindsay went ? I must go on and find 
 them." 
 
The Rescue Party 147 
 
 "Yes! and Ellie," persisted Mrs. Kitley. 
 " My sister ! My sister Ellie. She must be 
 quite near." 
 
 The men looked at one another, and the 
 Chinese coolie, who had been carrying it 
 ever since he found it, came up to Mrs. Kitley 
 and shewed her the bit of her sister's dress. 
 
 " Ah, dresses so easily get torn. But 
 where did you find it ? " asked Mrs. Kitley. 
 
 The Dane now shewed the pink bow. 
 " My dog ; he find this." 
 
 " Where ? where ? " persisted Mrs. Kitley. 
 
 Nobody liked to tell her. 
 
 "Greig got off all right with Miss Murphy 
 we hear. He is a plucky fellow, and she is a 
 plucky girl. I hope they got in safe," said 
 someone. 
 
 " Do you think Mr. Murray has got in 
 safe with Ellie?" asked Mrs. Kitley. 
 
 " Perhaps — perhaps. Do eat that sand- 
 wich. Do drink some whiskey. I am sure 
 you must need it." 
 
 " I don't believe I'd better," said Mrs. 
 Kitley, " I'm so strangely excited as it is." 
 
 Then Mr. Kitley and Mr. Annesley ap- 
 peared, and drank whiskey at once, and in- 
 sisted on Mrs. Kitley taking some too. " It is 
 very good of all you fellows. We didn't think 
 you'd come out so soon. And such a party 
 too. Did the Commissioner give a general 
 holiday ? " asked Annesley, shaking hands all 
 round. " What you, Boy ? You here too ? " 
 
148 Out in China 
 
 and he shook hands with the Boy also. Mr. 
 Kitley did the same, and they even nodded 
 to the coolies more or less individually. 
 
 But they did not seem excited, only very 
 tired, and sleepy, and glad to be relieved, 
 wanting to rest, and supposing everyone else 
 was all right somewhere or other. 
 
 The bit of dress was shewn and the bow. 
 " But it isn't the least bit of use your going, 
 Mr. Kitley, to the spot. I've examined 
 everything I could examine," said the doctor, 
 "and you'd better sit still and rest." 
 
 Mr. Kitley looked as if he longed to do so. 
 Then he got up and looked all round. 
 "Take care of my wife, will you, gentlemen. 
 She has held up splendidly. But she is 
 pretty well done now. Back soon, Jennie 
 dear," and he kissed her. " I only wish I 
 could get you out of this sun." 
 
 " Any idea where Forbes went to ? " asked 
 Lindsay, as one or two men hurried after 
 Mr. Kitley — to break it to him. 
 
 Mr. Annesley indicated vaguely some 
 direction. " We have not seen him and 
 Mrs. Lindsay since early in the day. My 
 idea was he would take her to some hill," 
 and he pointed to a rock mass not unlike 
 that, where they had hidden, but alas ! in 
 quite another direction. " But if they were 
 there now they'd have seen us long before 
 now." 
 
 "Send the coolies to see, Boy," said 
 
The Rescue Party 149 
 
 Lindsay, and sat down as if exhausted. 
 There were mountains and rock masses all 
 round, and it might as well be one as another, 
 and the sun was scorching. 
 
 Then Mr. Annesley gave the account of 
 how it had all happened, and how they had 
 driven off the immense force of Big Knives 
 by simply firing straight and dropping some 
 of them. " With only four guns," he said. 
 " Forbes gave his to the younger Brown, 
 and he ran off with Mrs. Lindsay before the 
 firing began. It seemed the right thing to 
 do. Kitley got off Mrs. Kitley. And after 
 a time when I saw the whole force beginning 
 to run I came to help them. You see it was 
 rather stiff work, though Kitley and I dragged 
 his wife along anyhow, and she ran and 
 sprang like a wild cat. Country-bred you 
 know makes all the difference. But little 
 Miss Ellie isn't, and has shorter legs, and 
 Murray would not dare take the same liberties 
 with her, nor know what she could do. I 
 was a little afraid, perhaps I ought to have 
 stayed with them. But like a fool I thought 
 lovers — you know. But what can have be- 
 come of them, and Jones and both the 
 Browns ? We have always been expecting 
 to see them turn up. The firing did not 
 seem to go on very long. Those Big Knives 
 must be a set of arrant cowards. And we've 
 spent the time ever since looking out — ready 
 to fire — without a thing to eat or to drink. I 
 
150 Out in China 
 
 don't think I did well to take that whiskey 
 just now. If there were only some water. 
 I say we must get Mrs. Kitley out of this 
 sun, or she will go mad— we all shall." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 WHAT ! ANOTHER PICNIC ! 
 
 It hardly seemed strange, it seemed indeed 
 laughably natural, like every day life out of 
 which they had been violently wrenched and 
 into which they now seemed to have relapsed 
 again, when they got hot water to wash, and 
 soft towels on which to dry their faces, and a 
 comfortable, cool cottage with a meal that 
 looked like tiffin, quite a proper tiffin too, 
 sitting on chairs round a table— with flowers 
 on it actually and a table cloth. All this 
 Lindsay's Boy had achieved. And when 
 Mr. Kitley and his party came back they 
 could not believe it at first, passed their 
 hands across their eyes, then began to laugh 
 and say silly things. " Do you know I 
 dreamed a horrid dream," said one of the 
 men, ''that these Chinese — -Good Lord! 
 were attacking us, and we were running 
 away and hiding, and some of us killed?" 
 He pulled himself together at the word, and 
 
152 Out in China 
 
 looked round as if frightened, lest someone 
 should have heard, then rattled on again. 
 " And now — and now — to find you all sitting 
 at tiffin ! Oh — ho — ho — you know I can't 
 get over it. And how smart you look Mrs. 
 Kitley. Such a pretty gown ! And — " 
 
 " Hush ! Hush ! " 
 
 "What is the matter? What is it all?" 
 said Mr. Kitley coming in. " What ! all at 
 tiffin! Oh! I say! Is it tiffin time only? 
 I thought it was bed-time, or to-morrow — or 
 some other time. My dear, I am very sorry 
 to be so late, and I think I should wash my 
 hands. My head is so hot." Then as the 
 hot water was brought in the Chinese fashion, 
 he looked up all dripping. " And don't wait 
 — don't wait for Ellie anybody. She and 
 Murray are young. Lovers, you know ! 
 Lover's privileges ! We must not intrude. 
 Oh Lord ! " and he broke down and was led 
 off to lie down on a bed in an inner room, an 
 awful Chinese bed, which he would not have 
 touched in ordinary times. 
 
 Meanwhile the coolies were telling their 
 tale in Chinese, whilst Mrs. Kitley, who did 
 not understand it, was serving all those in 
 like case with herself, and laughing and talk- 
 ing without seeing after her husband, without 
 asking any more after her sister, apologising 
 for the tiffin not being better, and generally 
 acting as mistress of the ceremonies. 
 " Another picnic ! " she said, " we did not 
 
What! Another Picnic! 153 
 
 expect another picnic yesterday, did we Mr. 
 Annesley? And such a much larger one." 
 
 " Have you sent a messenger to tell my 
 wife I am alive ? " that gentleman was asking 
 meanwhile, " Thank you, Lindsay. You 
 always were the most thoughtful— though 
 I'm not much account, less than I thought I 
 was, I feel now, yet to the wife I am just all 
 the world you see. And, poor, dear Maria ! 
 she must have been in a dreadful stew." 
 
 " She was very brave and quiet yesterday," 
 said Lindsay. " Oh, by the way, she sent 
 you this box of compressed meat things 
 just as we were starting yesterday — this 
 morning I mean. I don't know how I came 
 to forget it till now." 
 
 Just then Mr. Kitley came in again, 
 looking quite different. He took hold of 
 his wife's hand and looked at her. 
 
 " Yes, dear," she said. 
 
 And the others all looked away though 
 for some time it was unnecessary, for they 
 were already blinded by their tears, but- 
 they heard what he said. " Ellie was a 
 very good girl — a very good girl. And 
 Murray — he was a first-rate fellow you know 
 — first rate." 
 
 " Excuse me a moment, Mr. Kitley, "and 
 
 there was the American doctor pushing in 
 
 between. "Will you oblige me, Mrs. Kitley. 
 
 I have only just got this fixed up for you. 
 
 Drink it right down, please. Drink it right 
 
 10 
 
154 Out in China 
 
 down." He had been looking after Mr. 
 Kitley, and now he handed Mrs. Kitley a 
 glass of something nasty and white looking. 
 
 She swallowed it down at once. " Thank 
 you, doctor." 
 
 " Promise me, my dear," said Mr. Kitley, 
 " promise me." 
 
 " Yes, of course," said his wife without 
 looking at him, indeed avoiding doing so, 
 or even asking what he wanted. 
 
 " Do not try to see— promise not to 
 look. And promise not to ask — me nor 
 anyone — how or where — " poor Mr. Kitley 
 drew a long gasp, "we found her. Let us 
 think of her — in Heaven ! In Heaven 
 always ! " 
 
 "Yes," said his wife. Then without 
 moving, she looked up. She was hearing 
 something before he did. And now they 
 were bringing — something into the cottage, 
 something or things in a basket, alas ! an 
 empty luncheon basket. " Shall I not even 
 move and go to her ? " she asked. 
 
 " No, no ! " he shrieked, rather than said, 
 and put himself in front of her. 
 
 "No, no!" rose as in a chorus from the 
 other men. 
 
 " Do not move," from the doctor. Mr. 
 Kitley had fallen on his knees by his wife's 
 side, he was sobbing like a child now. She 
 put her arms round him. " Ellie was a 
 very good girl," she said through her tears, 
 
What! Another Picnic ! 155 
 
 "she loved God, and thought of God and 
 Heaven more than you really knew. Do 
 not sob, dearest. She is safe — in the ever- 
 lasting arms — in the presence of God's holy 
 angels," she went murmuring on. 
 
 And the others withdrew a little space. 
 
 "Are you ready now to go forward again?" 
 asked Lindsay. "The coolies seem bringing 
 back no news." 
 
 " No man savee anything," said the boy. 
 
 They hunted till nightfall yet found no 
 trace of Forbes and Winifred. 
 
 " Mrs. Lindsay was not among those 
 bodies. I assure you on my oath," the 
 doctor said to Lindsay. " I put Miss Ellie 
 together as well as I could, and that poor 
 young fellow. I was not clear about him 
 always. It might have been one of the 
 Browns. About Jones of course there was 
 no doubt. But there was nothing that could 
 be Mrs. Lindsay." 
 
 " I think we ought to try to get back 
 under cover of the night," said the late 
 Militia officer, the Captain of the party. 
 " I am very sorry, Lindsay, very sorry 
 indeed. But the Commissioner only spared 
 his staff for one day, and some of the men 
 are beginning to grumble as it is. And any- 
 way we ought to put Mrs. Kitley in safety." 
 
 " Oh, do not think of me," said Mrs. 
 Kitley. 
 
 " Then there is Mrs Annesley, in great 
 
156 Out in China 
 
 anxiety," proceeded the other, "and we shall 
 be short of food directly. I am sure I can 
 undertake that many of us will come back." 
 
 "I shall remain in any case," said Lindsay. 
 Then they made a gathering of food for him. 
 His man-servant received it gravely, but 
 shook his head as he looked at his master. 
 It was evident the man's courage could hardly 
 hold out, but he could not think of forsaking 
 his master, and he saw that it would be utterly 
 useless to urge him to go. 
 
 Under cover of the night the little foreign 
 party stole away. They were carrying their 
 dead with them as far as they could, and they 
 dared carry no lanterns even as they did so. 
 One or two of the men were evidently badly 
 scared already. Progress was slow. And, 
 as it was, they all but fell into the great Big 
 Knife encampment. Several of them had 
 promised themselves to return at daybreak, 
 when they started, but as they pushed slowly 
 forward, even the staunchest began to feel 
 doubtful about this, if, as by a miracle they 
 could themselves win through. 
 
 " Anyway, Mrs. Lindsay must die of it, 
 she never was strong," they began to say to 
 one another. 
 
 "Oh, you never know what you can live 
 through till you try," returned the American 
 doctor. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE RECOGNITION 
 
 Lindsay, the most English of Englishmen, 
 dressed in the clothes of a Chinese coolie, 
 stealing through the night with his servants, 
 watching, listening, only every now and then 
 venturing on a call in English. Was it 
 credible? He did not know himself, could 
 hardly believe that it was he, had indeed 
 lost all thought of his own identity, all 
 thought of Winifred, was pursued but by one 
 burning desire — the last root desire of the 
 true Englishman — to leave no stone un- 
 turned to do his duty ! Alive or dead he 
 must find his wife, if he could. But how it 
 might be he dared not let himself think. 
 Once the men thought they heard an answer- 
 ing call — and called again — again ! but met 
 with no further response. What Chinese 
 they came across were scared out of their 
 wits, and would have nothing to do with 
 them. The Boy, tired out and absolutely 
 
158 Out in China 
 
 hopeless now, had lagged behind. In the 
 end he appeared to have learnt more than 
 they had, as they returned wearily dragging 
 themselves along, wet through with the 
 heavy dew. For he hastened to warn his 
 master that presently the Big Knives would 
 be there in force — the very party into whose 
 hands the others returning so nearly fell — 
 and that the people of the cottage would not 
 for any money allow them to remain there 
 any longer, lest they themselves should be 
 burnt to death or buried alive for having 
 dealings with foreigners, that indeed he had 
 begun to fear for his own life among them. 
 And he now supplicated his master to hide 
 among the rocks in a safe and inaccessible 
 place that he had heard of for that day, and 
 then next night when possibly the Big 
 Knives might have passed on, to try to 
 make his way back to the Island, but not 
 going anywhere near the Chinese city, which 
 he, the Boy, understood was now violently 
 anti-foreign. He had heard of a lonely path 
 in a quite opposite direction by which they 
 could in a circuitous manner arrive at a re- 
 mote headland, from which it might be 
 possible to take boat, and so get over to 
 the Island. 
 
 Lindsay listened to all the Boy had to say. 
 He looked round at the frightened coolies. 
 He realised for the first time that all these 
 men's lives were in his hands. There would 
 
The Recognition 159 
 
 be no mercy shown them, if they were caught 
 by the Big Knives. "Is there room enough 
 for so large a party to hide ? " he asked, " and 
 what will happen to the others coming back 
 to look for us ? " 
 
 " Oh, master, they will not come back," 
 cried the Boy in a tone of deep conviction. 
 
 " No, of course they will not come back," 
 said Lindsay now, suddenly surprised that he 
 should ever have expected it. And he now 
 only objected when he found all the people 
 from the cottage wanted to come and hide 
 too, all terrified lest their neighbours should 
 tell of them, that they had had dealings with 
 foreigners. " I can't have women and chil- 
 dren and such a crowd." 
 
 " Oh, master, two of the coolies will dig 
 in the fields so fashion can look-see, and two 
 have go away too muchee fear. And these 
 women and small chilo they too muchee fear. 
 All the same your own mississy, Master, 
 these women all belong pore man's wife." 
 
 And Lindsay once again, as so often 
 before, over-borne by the never talked 
 about but deeply rooted democracy of 
 Chinese customs, which really hold every 
 man's equality, gave way at once. Only he 
 insisted upon hurry, and as they all ran 
 about excited, picking up first this, then 
 that, as too precious to leave behind, a good 
 many of the women got left, and what be- 
 came of them he never knew, 
 
160 Out in China 
 
 Meanwhile the missing Winifred had slept 
 and slept till Forbes finding her head always 
 burning, and her eyes always heavy with 
 sleep, had not known what to do. Fearing 
 the tremendous dew amongst the Indian 
 corn, he had once more carried her off 
 amongst the rocks, and then utterly ex- 
 hausted he had laid down beside her and 
 slept too. And now, when he woke with a 
 start, in one agonised moment at once 
 realising their forlorn and terrible position, 
 he saw that she too was at last awake and 
 with the light of reason in her eyes, and 
 hurried up to her rejoicing. 
 
 "Come nearer — nearer," murmured Wini-^ 
 fred. " Everything seems so far away." 
 
 Encouraged as it were by this, at last his 
 reserve broke down. "My own dearest! 
 Mine at last ! Tell me you love me, Wini- 
 fred ! " 
 
 She shrank away, saying a little woodenly 
 as if her tongue had difficulty in forming 
 words : " I am Mrs. Lindsay, Mr. Lindsay's 
 wife ! " 
 
 " No— no ! that is over now," cried Forbes. 
 " With all life's shams and bitterness. Till 
 death — through life. Life is over now for us 
 — for all ! You are free. We are both free 
 to love — to — " 
 
 There was a curious leaden look about her 
 eyes, an unusual colour in her cheeks. "Are 
 you sure ? " asked Winifred doubtingly. 
 
The Recognition 161 
 
 Then suddenly the colour flushed over her 
 face, her eyes broke out into brilliance ; and 
 she threw her arms around him, drawing his 
 face down to be kissed and kissed. " Oh my 
 dearest, how I have loved you," she crooned 
 rather than said. " Too much — too much. 
 But I am so glad I have not died without 
 this. He never loved me — not me I You 
 did from the first. From the first ! I saw it. 
 I felt it. It has made me so happy — so very 
 happy. And yet I never really knew it till 
 now, — never knew why my life was so 
 happy. Oh, it has been a beautiful life, has 
 it not — like a flower's, like a sunbeam's ; — 
 and it is finishing — before the night," and she 
 smiled a little sweet, sad smile that would 
 have witched the heart out of any man even 
 one who had not already loved her. Oh, my 
 beloved, you will never know how I could 
 have loved you, if I had grown to be a 
 woman. We shall neither of us ever know 
 how happy we might have been. It is all un- 
 known — unexpressed — but true — true — " 
 She had been playing with the hair upon his 
 forehead, holding his head in both hands. 
 Now suddenly she pushed it away from her. 
 " But can it be right — right ? " The dullness 
 seemed creeping over her eyes again, the 
 difficulty coming back into her speech. 
 " Millicent and Agatha would never think it 
 right. Auntie might, perhaps. But auntie 
 was always so indulgent, And Millicent 
 
162 Out in China 
 
 never would. You see I am his wife — Mr. 
 Lindsay's wife," she added gravely. "And 
 you cannot think Mr. Lindsay would like it. 
 You would not in his place." 
 
 There are points beyond which human en- 
 durance cannot stand out, and Forbes had 
 reached his limit now. He did not know 
 what possessed him, nor what he really 
 meant by it himself, as he stood beside her, 
 looking down on her for a minute, then 
 suddenly knelt and said : Goodbye then, my 
 beloved," and a great tear fell as he spoke. 
 
 " You are not going away ? " cried Wini- 
 fred in sudden terror. " You would not leave 
 me alone surely ? Dying ! Am I to die 
 alone ? Oh auntie — auntie — auntie ! " 
 
 He had to hold her in his arms and caress 
 her to soothe her back to calm. "Never, my 
 darling, never! I will never leave you. Do 
 not fear, Winifred. I am here beside you, 
 my poor child." 
 
 " Thank you," she whispered, and nestled 
 up to him, her little tear-stained face huddled 
 into his bosom. " I could not understand it, 
 that you should go away. It seemed so un- 
 like you" she murmured. Then after a few 
 moments : " Do you think that I am dying 
 — really dying ? I feel — like — going away ! " 
 
 "God knows," said Forbes, looking at her 
 in her pretty, tumbled frock lying there 
 amongst the rocks without even a pillow, 
 without anything, nothing but his body with 
 
The Recognition 163 
 
 which to shield her from the terrible, pitiless 
 sun, mounting higher and higher, and making 
 even his own head swim now. " Poor child ! 
 Poor child," he repeated, stroking and press- 
 ing her hand. 
 
 She began to be delirious now. " Do you 
 hear it, water running ? Oh, take me, do Mr. 
 Forbes. It is coming so high. Do you not 
 see I shall be all wet through — directly." 
 Then suddenly she sat up and said in a rational 
 voice : "I hear something." 
 
 " So do I," said Forbes, and for a moment 
 his heart stood still with horror, for the voices 
 he heard were Chinese, and he looked at 
 Winifred, and wished to heaven he had a gun. 
 Should he strangle her there, as she lay ? 
 His hand could so easily close round that 
 little throat. Winifred was very near a 
 violent death then, had she known it. " Lie 
 quite still," whispered Forbes. " I will try to 
 look out." 
 
 With difficulty he rolled along a huge 
 rock fragment, creeping forward almost prone 
 on the ground and pushing the rock inch by 
 inch before him. 
 
 He could see now, blue cotton gowns gleam- 
 ing through the rocks below, — Chinese — com- 
 ing on. The rock trembled on the edge, he 
 raised himself to hurl it with all his might so 
 as not only to kill the first man who reached 
 a certain spot, but if possible to block the 
 way. He must defend himself and her as 
 
164 Out in China 
 
 long as he could, sell his life as dearly as 
 possible. Perhaps, meanwhile, Winifred 
 might die. If only she could be dead 
 first — dead — dead ! Suddenly on his agon- 
 ised, anxious ears fell the sound of English 
 words : " You see, Master, plenty man can 
 hide backside." Pidgin English ! And why! 
 Surely they were all in Chinese clothes ! He 
 stared down, dishevelled, in his shirt sleeves, 
 his brows knotted above his eyes, the rock 
 ready to hurl, when suddenly what seemed a 
 Coolie looked up, and in him of all people in 
 the world Forbes recognised Lindsay, who in 
 his turn stood and gazed amazed at the hat- 
 less, coatless, torn, and soiled figure before 
 him, above all at the expression so awful in 
 its desperate, hopeless, furious wrath. 
 
 Thus the two men recognised one another, 
 and for a moment stood and stared, and 
 neither spoke, Forbes almost breaking his 
 hands in desperate efforts to restrain the 
 rock he had been at such pains to precipitate. 
 " Here — hie — Lindsay help ! " 
 
 Lindsay rushed forward, and together the 
 two men succeeded in replacing it in 
 safety. 
 
 Then after a hesitation, which seemed like 
 an eternity to them both, Lindsay spoke. 
 " Is my wife here ? " was all he said. 
 
 " Yes — here ! " 
 
 " Is she alive ?" 
 
 " Yes ! alive ! " with a backward glance 
 
The Recognition 165 
 
 at her as if to make sure. " Wait one 
 moment! " 
 
 Then he went back to her. "Winifred 
 dearest, can you rouse yourself! It is life 
 not death we have to face. Your husband 
 has come to look for you." 
 
 But her eyes were glazed with fever, and 
 she did not seem to understand even when 
 he shook her arm. "Your husband, Winifred ! 
 Lindsay ! Lindsay is coming ! You are 
 saved." 
 
 Then he beckoned and Lindsay came and 
 stood beside her, looking down and notic- 
 ing everything. If they could have known 
 this was what he was saying in his heart, 
 " You trusted your niece to me, and this 
 is the pass to which I have brought her— 
 dying here among the rocks." And he was 
 noting every item of desolation and dis- 
 comfort, totting it all up as it were as a debit 
 account against himself. 
 
 " She was conscious just now," said Forbes. 
 " Have you water? " 
 
 " Boy ! " called Lindsay. And the Boy 
 came and immediately began to unpack. 
 He it was who poured water over her, 
 sprinkling it carefully with his hands, and 
 not allowing the two Englishmen to touch 
 it with one of their fingers, lest they should 
 pour too much. While Lindsay held an 
 umbrella over her, and took off a Coolie's 
 hat with which to fan her. 
 
1 66 Out in China 
 
 " I don't think she knows you in those 
 clothes," said Forbes. " Have you your 
 others ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Lindsay and there and then 
 began to change. " Have you been here all 
 the time ? " 
 
 "No! Oh no ! " cried Forbes, but could 
 not detail the history of their Odyssey there 
 and then. 
 
 When he was once more European in 
 appearance Lindsay advanced, and bent 
 over his wife. " Winifred, my dear, are 
 you better ? " he asked in his cold, clear 
 tones. 
 
 She opened her eyes at once then, re- 
 cognising him with a delighted smile. 
 " Kind ! Always so kind ! " she said, and 
 tried to hold out her hands to him. 
 
 They were the last words she spoke. 
 And Forbes felt afterwards he was glad it 
 was so. At the time he was human, and his 
 heart had ached for some recognition. But 
 none had come for him. 
 
 The two men wanted to move her, — to do 
 all sorts of things. 
 
 " Better no move Mississy," said the Boy, 
 as he made cushions out of clothes and 
 showed Lindsay how to chafe her hands, 
 whilst he got one of the women to warm the 
 poor chilled feet in her own bosom. But it 
 was all of no use. The damps of death were 
 gathering fast. And the last words she ever 
 
The Recognition 167 
 
 spoke were, " kind ! so kind ! " to her hus- 
 band. He liked to remember that, and to 
 remember too that last glad smile on recog- 
 nising him. It seemed to blot out some of 
 that terrible debtor account. And curiously 
 enough Forbes too liked to think of it, as 
 presently the two bent over what they could 
 not but recognise was the dead body, that 
 had been Winifred's. And the sun scorched 
 down upon the bare rocks, and it did not 
 seem to matter. Nothing seemed to matter 
 now. 
 
 " At least you saved her body from dese- 
 cration," said Lindsay, " and did so, I expect, 
 at the risk of your own life ! " 
 
 Forbes looked up at him. There were 
 tears in his eyes. " At least I would have 
 done so if necessary," he said. And the two 
 men grasped each other's hands, recognising 
 as so often before the qualities that had made 
 them for so many years such friends. 
 
 After that they could talk together. 
 "Was she very much afraid ? she was such 
 a child," asked Lindsay. 
 
 " She did not seem afraid," replied Forbes. 
 Then he told of their finding the headless 
 body of the little child and putting it in his 
 chair, and then again of their coming upon 
 all the sedan chairs in a ghostly circle. 
 " They are there still," interposed Lindsay. 
 "At least they were when we came by." 
 And then Forbes told of her finding her foot 
 
1 68 Out in China 
 
 wet with blood. " She was frightened or 
 rather horrified then," he said. " But she 
 has never seemed frightened since. She was 
 very heavy with fever and slept. To-day I 
 thought she was better, and she said you had 
 always been so very kind to her — and — and 
 how happy she had been in China — that hers 
 had been a beautiful life ! Like a flower's ! 
 like a sunbeam's and finishing — before the 
 night ! " 
 
 "Did she say all that?" asked Lindsay 
 surprised. " It is quite true. She was like 
 a flower. And — and now that she is dead 
 and in your care I feel that she is — more 
 yours than mine." 
 
 " She was your wife," said Forbes stoutly, 
 even while touched beyond expression by the 
 inexorable justice of the man, who even in 
 death would not claim what he knew had not 
 really belonged to him. " I am sure if Mrs. 
 Lindsay knows what is passing here now, 
 that is what she would wish us both to 
 remember both now and always." 
 
 Then he even retired a little space, and 
 left Lindsay, the husband, to make all the 
 arrangements. That might be taken as a 
 confession of wrong doing. Had things been 
 different, he, Lindsay's friend, would have 
 sought to spare him all that he could. Now 
 he was only wishful to avoid the least appear- 
 ance of interference. 
 
 Then for two days and nights the two men 
 
The Recognition 169 
 
 with their Chinese following fought and hid 
 and hid and fought their way back to the 
 Island carrying their dead with them. But 
 on the third day they stood once more on the 
 wide, shady verandah among the sweet scented 
 flowers and the comfortable basket chairs, 
 and gazed across the tree tops at the sea. 
 And Winifred's coffin stood between them as 
 they did so, pots of Freesia still in bloom 
 beside it. 
 
 But Forbes had to hurry to his Consulate 
 to receive anguished appeals for help, and 
 hear accounts of further massacres, and to 
 repeat over and over again : " Lord Salis- 
 bury will not move. The Foreign Office 
 will not do anything. Of course I ought to 
 have been killed — brutally murdered. But 
 then they would not care ! Not just for a 
 Consul. As it is, I can do nothing." 
 
 Only force can overcome force, and he had 
 no armed force to interpose. Yet people 
 came to him as the Consul, the representative 
 of England's might. 
 
 And his pale face and hopeless tone, to- 
 gether with the black circles under his eyes, 
 seemed only natural under the circumstances. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 AFTERWARDS 
 
 Of course things quieted down as they al- 
 ways hitherto had done in China, and nothing 
 particular came of it all, though there were 
 some rather fierce newspaper articles written 
 at the time, in which people sighed alter- 
 nately for Lord Palmerston and Sir Harry 
 Parkes. But the British Government was 
 anxious about its Parliamentary majority just 
 then, and China seemed a long way off, 
 looking very unimportant too in the Times 
 Atlas, with so few places marked, as also 
 mostly wrongly as people from China said. 
 So a high judicial tone was assumed in Eng- 
 land as to the iniquity of looking at every 
 thing, as if the centre of the world were in 
 China, and England had no other interests 
 more important. That is a very safe line to 
 assume, whatever subject is brought up, and 
 England's Imperial interests are so vast no 
 one is ever in a position to prove that any 
 
Afterwards 1 7 1 
 
 particular point should be attended to, before 
 it forces itself upon public attention, thus all 
 alike can be neglected by Government 
 Officials till — it is too late for any but the 
 Military. The people who had lost those 
 they loved best in China had not the heart 
 to say much, and those, who did not care 
 much, continued not to care much. A few 
 poor ignorant peasants, who also possibly 
 were previously convicted criminals, were 
 beheaded, and a certain sum of money was 
 handed over and declined, then handed on 
 again and after four transfers in less than a 
 year and a half — such is the Consular service 
 sometimes in China — Forbes found himself 
 in the Consulate at Chefoo, China's great sea 
 bath, where ladies and children enjoy them- 
 selves during the summer months until 
 fetched away by men wearied out with busi- 
 ness and heat borne in loneliness. The 
 ladies were still arriving when Forbes found 
 himself at a dinner party next to a lady, who 
 had arrived at the Island just as he had left 
 it. The silver shone, the punkahs waved the 
 gas in their faces, the faint scent of dying 
 flowers mingled with the fumes of the viands, 
 as with a good two hours of it in prospect he 
 opposed a somewhat pale profile to her and 
 her chit-chat as from another world — a world 
 he had long thought of as dead and buried. 
 
 " Mr. Lindsay is married again, you know. 
 Poor man ! he went home, and we thought 
 
172 Out in China 
 
 he would never come back. But he has with 
 another wife, called Winifred too, and rather 
 like — like, you know — " she dropped her 
 voice and hesitated. " She is older of course, 
 but such a sweet, good creature, and she 
 seems to suit him exactly. He sits and looks 
 at her and grows fat, yes truly he does ! 
 Though she is nothing to look at like the 
 first one of course. Between ourselves I 
 think it was a great mistake he did not marry 
 her from the first. She is an old love they 
 say, and she suits him exactly. People say 
 no one can ever tell what might not have 
 happened if that dreadful massacre had not 
 occurred just then. Nothing was done, was 
 there ? No one was really punished ? " 
 
 "Mrs. Lindsay was not massacred," said 
 the Consul severely. Then, as the other 
 paused troubled, he went on in a very cutting 
 tone, which yet did not seem altogether meant 
 for his dinner neighbour. " She died of fever 
 brought on by hardship and exposure. And 
 after all people may die of fever any year in 
 China — without all that." 
 
 " The others were massacred though." 
 " What ! the Missionaries ! Oh ! they 
 don't count. There is no close time for 
 Missionaries now. Lord Salisbury has laid it 
 down as an axiom, that they are to be always 
 at all seasons ready for martyrdom. Then 
 most of them were American subjects too. 
 And the United States sets no money value 
 
Afterwards 173 
 
 on Missionaries. Besides England has always 
 fought all her battles for her in China. She 
 expects it now, profits by the concessions we 
 extort and pays us — with abuse. To the 
 Chinese she says: "We're your friends. 
 We never fight you, only shut you out of our 
 country, and kill you indiscriminately if you 
 get in." No! the United States are hardly 
 in a position to make a fuss about a massacre. 
 Jones of course! But he was only a clerk. 
 There is no scarcity of clerks, I believe," and 
 he looked round with such a queer expression 
 that, as she said afterwards, she could not tell 
 whether his eyes were laughing or brimming 
 over with tears. " We all liked him of course. 
 What a splendid looking fellow he was ! And 
 the way he died made one wish he hadn't. 
 But Lord Salisbury, of course, could not be 
 bothered to hear about all that. The British 
 Government has other interests to attend to, 
 and the trade with China is a mere drop in 
 the bucket, you know, not equal to that with 
 Norway and Sweden — as it is of course," he 
 added abruptly. " As to the Brown Brothers 
 the firm died with them, and there was no 
 one to make a claim even. They were the 
 last of their Browns it seemed. About 
 Murray, of course, the head of his firm 
 might have said something, but they say 
 there is a baronetcy dangling that way. And 
 there was a certain sum of money paid. And 
 I believe some coolies' heads were cut off. I 
 
174 Out i n China 
 
 rather think I had to see it done. I didn't 
 know the coolies by sight of course. They 
 might have been any body. But you see I 
 hadn't been massacred as you call it. That 
 was a great mistake I made of course. A 
 full blown Consul they might have paid some 
 attention to. But I don't know that anything 
 would move England now. The nation 
 seems changed." 
 
 " Do you recollect that Dane with the 
 big dog?" asked the lady. "He went 
 mad." 
 
 " Which ? The dog or the Dane ? " 
 "Oh, the Dane! No! I don't think drink 
 had anything to do with it. He was a very 
 sensitive man for all he was so silent. And 
 he never got over the horror of it all. Nor 
 has Mrs. Kitley. He is so tender and atten- 
 tive to her. But she has all her sister's things 
 about the drawing-room, as if she might come 
 back at any moment. And she shews Ellie's 
 unfinished work, and insists on everyone 
 admiring it — she did work very beautifully 
 — and talks of her always — always, but never 
 speaks, of her as dead, so that one has quite 
 to caution strangers. It is very pitiful. Do 
 you remember that American Doctor ? It 
 was very nice of him. He got a cast made 
 of Ellie's hand, the only bit of her that was 
 left at all whole, I believe. And Mrs. Kitley 
 has it under a glass case ! " Such a pretty 
 hand ! " she says, as she goes by. Poor 
 
Afterwards 175 
 
 Ellie's was not a very pretty hand. But of 
 course we all have to say it was." 
 
 Forbes was no longer treating her to his 
 profile, he was looking round at her with a 
 wistful, pitying expression, such as very few 
 people had ever seen on the always popular 
 Consul's features. 
 
 Emboldened by this, his neighbour con- 
 tinued : "We have another Commissioner 
 now of course, such a different man from the 
 last ! But wasn't it nice of Mrs. Greig — Miss 
 Murphy that was — they were married at once. 
 Oh ! of course you married them — but wasn't 
 it nice of her, she went on teaching those 
 children just the same till they went away. 
 Only she wouldn't take any money for it. 
 She was determined her marriage should not 
 inconvenience anybody, and of course they 
 could not get another governess all at once. 
 But it was very good of her, as she always 
 hated teaching. And now she has their 
 beautiful piano, oh ! and lots of their things. 
 They were so generous to her, but no wonder. 
 We have just had another ball at the Con- 
 sulate by the way, but it was nothing like 
 such a grand one as you gave. Do you 
 remember how beautifully that poor, dear, 
 lovely first Mrs. Lindsay arranged the 
 decorations ? " 
 
 " Ye — es — I think I remember." 
 
 Did she notice how steadily he was looking 
 at his plate, as she went on all in a tangle ? 
 
176 Out in China 
 
 " But this time an Austrian man-of-war 
 sent its band. That was a great treat. Ah ! 
 to be sure life has its changes. One time 
 such beautiful garlands, and next time a 
 band ! I often think if I could note down all 
 the changes I have seen in China, even since 
 I have been here, what an interesting book it 
 would make ! " 
 
 " I am sure it would." Even in the old 
 days you could never quite tell when Forbes 
 was sarcastic. Now it was yet more difficult. 
 
 " And when are you coming to visit us 
 again ? " 
 
 " Never — I expect — it is not likely — 
 Indeed I never would — under any circum- 
 stances." He spoke low, staring at the 
 waving mass of ferns and flowers before him. 
 
 "Ah, I forgot. Of course you went 
 through all that dreadful massacre — with poor 
 Mrs. Lindsay too. I never rightly under- 
 stood what did occur. Was it so very 
 terrible ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! just like everything else. 
 Nothing ever is very different. The sun 
 always rises and sets. Only it takes longer 
 about it sometimes," he spoke the last words 
 very low as if to himself. 
 
 "Yes, that's so dreadful in summer. And 
 I have heard how terribly hot it was — the 
 first burst of heat. We had no heat to speak 
 of last year and my garden was lovelier than 
 ever. By the way the new Consul has cut 
 
Afterwards 177 
 
 down all the Bougainvillia at the Consulate. 
 Mrs. Annesley particularly asked him to do 
 it, I can't think why. However he said the 
 colour jarred upon his sensibilities. He is a 
 little cracked, of course." 
 
 " I suppose so. We all are in the Consular 
 Service — -if we stop on long enough. It is 
 merely a question of time — merely a question 
 of time," repeated Forbes. 
 
 " And the worst of it is the poor, dear man 
 really has grown very odd and abrupt," she 
 said to Mrs. Annesley in retailing the 
 conversation to her on her return to the 
 Island. " The truth is I am afraid he was 
 very much in love with the first Mrs. Lindsay, 
 and he has never got over it." 
 
 " A man didn't need to be in love never to 
 get over what Mr. Forbes and all of them 
 went through," said Mrs. Annesley. 
 
 " Why I am sure Mr. Annesley is just the 
 same." 
 
 " Tom is tough — tough and well seasoned," 
 said his wife quietly. " But you'll never 
 hear him speak of it, or even allude to it. I 
 know he never wants to hear of it all again. 
 And that's why I have never written to Mr. 
 Forbes since he went away. I don't think 
 he can want ever to hear of any of us again. 
 You see he said he never would come back. 
 It is a very odd thing," she went on musingly 
 as if to herself. " Neither he nor Mr. 
 Lindsay died. But the Boy died, whilst Mr. 
 
 to 
 
178 Out in China 
 
 Lindsay was away. I think he had a very 
 good heart that boy. But it may of course 
 have been only that Chinese food did not 
 agree with him after so many years of high 
 feeding," she added. " Only he had no ill- 
 ness — just died." 
 
 Thus after the fashion of Europeans in 
 China, they talked lightly of things they had 
 felt but too deeply. And the years went on, 
 and the suns rose and set. And everyone 
 liked Forbes. But he never married. And 
 he looks upon himself as a widower now. 
 For since Lindsay has married again he con- 
 siders Winifred has become wholly his. 
 " Dear little Winifred ! My sweet child ! " is 
 however the way in which he speaks of her 
 to himself. Is it possible that he too is for- 
 getting her as the years go by, and that he 
 may yet one day marry a good housekeeper, 
 and be — comfortable ! There is often now a 
 wistful look about Forbes, as if he were 
 searching for something. This sets people 
 talking, and then they tell you if you want to 
 make the Consul angry, you have nothing to 
 do but offer him a buttonhole, " I never wear 
 flowers," he says. They remark also that he 
 will never look at a Freesia, shudders even 
 at the scent. Consuls grow so queer out in 
 China they say. 
 
 There is a grave upon the Island, upon 
 which Freesias often grow, but indeed, what- 
 ever the season, always the earliest flowers 
 
Afterwards 179 
 
 are to be seen there in bloom. All those 
 who knew Winifred make their offerings 
 and keep it like a garden, Mrs. Greig, Mrs. 
 Kitley — who will never visit what is called 
 Ellie's grave, will not even look at it — Mrs. 
 Annesley, and above all the present Mrs. 
 Lindsay. That grave is the loveliest spot 
 in all the Island, and every stranger has to 
 visit it, as one of the sights. Her Aunt's 
 photograph is placed now in the place in 
 the drawing-room, where Winifred wished it 
 to be, and the whole room is now soothing 
 and home-like as she first arranged it. The 
 Number Two Boy and the coolie did it 
 beween them at Lindsay's request from 
 memory. There is no picture of Winifred 
 there. But in the second Mrs. Lindsay's 
 little sitting-room, where her husband rarely 
 enters, there are all the many photographs 
 of Winifred laughing, smiling, in a group, 
 without a group. They almost cover one 
 wall, and seem to irradiate brilliance upon 
 the more hum-drum pictures of Agatha and 
 George and their babies, together with 
 Millicent growing somewhat severe now, 
 and always putting off her long promised 
 visit to China. Somehow Millicent is never 
 satisfied that Winnie, whom she used to love 
 to scold herself when she had her with her, 
 was not somewhat hardly and unfairly dealt 
 with, and cannot reconcile herself to the elder 
 Miss Ellerslie and Mr. Lindsay being quite 
 
180 Out in China 
 
 happy together. " If she had really been 
 our Aunt it would not have been possible of 
 course," says Millicent. " I do not think it 
 should have felt possible now." And she 
 has made up her mind that the one with 
 whom she sympathises, and who would 
 sympathise with her is Forbes. But they 
 have never met, and seem never likely to do so. 
 Forbes has no photographs hanging on 
 his walls, only in an old book a group or 
 two of the whole Island community as he 
 knew it, Winifred among them. Over his 
 bedroom mantel-piece however there hangs 
 a poem : 
 
 " Even Death is nothing more 
 Than opening of a door 
 Through which men pass away 
 As stars into the day, 
 
 And we, who see not, blinded by the light, 
 Cry, " They are lost in night ! " 
 #* + **# 
 
 Thus ever, near or far, 
 
 Life seems but where we are ; 
 
 Yet those we bid Good-bye 
 
 Find Death is not to die, 
 
 As you, departing from our daily strife, 
 
 Go hence from Life to Life. 
 
 Clasp hands, and now Farewell ! 
 
 The word's a passing knell, 
 
 But ripening year by year 
 
 Life triumphs there as here, 
 
 A/or dark nor silent would the distance be, 
 
 Could we but hear and see." 
 
 At one time he used often to sit quite still 
 and wonder what would have happened had 
 they all lived on ? Had he greatly sinned ? 
 
Afterwards 1 8 r 
 
 Had Winifred ? Then one day across the 
 years he suddenly heard her praying aloud 
 with a fervour that had astonished him at 
 the time. And it was then he looked up 
 that poem she had quoted to him, copied it 
 out in a firm round hand without any decora- 
 tive twirls or ornamentation about it, and 
 hung it above his mantel-piece. 
 
 Forbes is ,a very much respected Consul, 
 but he is never likely to rise any higher now. 
 He knows too much about China to run the 
 least chance of ever being made British 
 Representative there, though at one time 
 men in China hoped for this. They have 
 however long ago given up hoping for that 
 or anything now. Since the summer of 1900 
 they do not even grumble, and when English- 
 men have given up grumbling you may know 
 that they are hopeless indeed. 
 
 But the people on the Island are still being 
 photographed in groups, all smiling at one 
 another, and all the gardens on the Island 
 are still each one the prettiest or the most 
 picturesque or the most full of flowers. For 
 places have their influences, and form people's 
 lives, however the people may come and go 
 and think themselves free agents. And thus 
 those who live in China all grow somewhat 
 Chinafied, more or less, and mostly more. 
 And meanwhile China is being Christianised 
 and great bodies of Christians are joining 
 " the noble army of martyrs," till sometimes 
 
1 82 Out in China 
 
 one thinks the Chinese will be such Chris- 
 tians as the world has not seen yet, so 
 staunch, so devoted, and so single-minded. 
 
 But Europe knows nothing of these things 
 e pur si muove. 
 
 The End. 
 
 W. Jolly & Sons, Printers, Aberdeen