The Blue Dress Girl

by E. V. Thompson

  ‘I don’t feel particularly well. I’d like to carry on with my Chinese studies quietly,’ he said to his mother when she tried to insist that he accompany her and his father to the service. ‘I’m only just beginning to realise how far I’ve fallen behind everyone else. I’d like to try to catch up.’

  ‘I help you,’ said Kau-lin, who had been unashamedly listening in to the conversation. ‘Me and She-she. We good teachers, you see.’

  Before Nancy Calvin could voice her objections, Esme Pilkington’s voice boomed out, ‘What a splendid idea! I’ll join you. I was not acquainted with Sister Margaret. I am quite sure I can best serve her memory, and the cause of the Lord, by using the time to speed the day when I am carrying on her good work.’

  ‘I might as well continue working too. I can’t have word getting back to my admiral that I took time off when others were studying.’

  Kernow realised how disappointed Arthur was that he was not going to have the Chinese girls – Kau-lin in particular – to himself, but with Esme in the classroom he would probably welcome the support of another man.

  ‘Very well.’ Hannah Jefferies spoke to Esme. ‘When you’ve had enough of studying perhaps you’ll see that She-she and Kau-lin get back to the house safely.’

  ‘Our house? You mean the mission house?’ The sharp question came from Nancy Calvin.

  The mission house was the home of the Jefferies, but the Calvins and Esme Pilkington were also living in it. They would remain there until they were sufficiently fluent in the Chinese language to be allocated mission stations of their own.

  ‘That’s right. I’ve given She-she and Kau-lin the room we had fitted out for any convalescent brothers or sisters who might pass through Hong Kong. It will be much more convenient than having them remain in the mission hospital now that She-she is almost fully recovered. But come along, if we don’t hurry we’ll be late. We don’t want to incur the wrath of the bishop.’

  When the others had gone it was not Esme Pilkington who took charge of the remaining class-members, but Kau-lin. Indicating Esme and Kernow with a wave of her hand, she said, ‘She-she teach you. Arthur need good teacher. I take care him.’

  Arthur’s face turned a bright pink at Kau-lin’s words but the embarrassment hid his secret pleasure as she took his arm and led him to a corner of the room, away from the others. Arthur was immediately set to work reciting the Chinese vocabulary he had written in his book, and Kau-lin firmly corrected the many mistakes he made in pronunciation.

  She-she’s methods were less direct, but nonetheless effective. She allowed Esme and Kernow to go over the lessons taught by Hannah Jefferies, and answered questions as they were raised.

  The weather had become very hot and humid and it was particularly oppressive that afternoon. After no more than an hour’s work, Esme announced that she needed to go outside for a drink of water and some air.

  After her departure, Kernow and She-she worked steadily on. Whenever Kernow glanced across the room he saw Arthur and Kau-lin sitting with their heads close together, looking at pictures in one of the books that belonged to the mission, with Arthur trying to describe, in Chinese, what he saw.

  ‘Those two get on very well. Kau-lin’s good for Arthur. I don’t think he’s known many girls.’

  ‘You not all same man as Arthur. You know many girls?’

  ‘Not many. I’ve spent too much time on board a ship, or learning to fight.’

  She-she shook her head. ‘Fighting not good, but you Hong Kong long time now. Must know Chinese girls?’

  ‘You and Kau-lin are the only ones.’

  She-she scrutinised Kernow’s face as though trying to ascertain whether he was telling the truth. When she was satisfied, she said, ‘You think Chinese girls as pretty as Fan Qui girls?’

  ‘I think you are much prettier …’ Kernow hesitated. He wanted to say more, but he paused as he remembered what Hannah Jefferies had said about the blue dress girls. ‘How about you, She-she? Have you met many men – European men?’

  Something in his voice made She-she look up at him quickly. She wondered how much he knew of her place in Li Hung’s household. She would rather he knew nothing at all. It had been a time of shame.

  When she replied it was in an even quieter voice than usual. ‘Sometimes they would come to the house of Li Hung and I would see them.’

  The memory of Trader Courtice returned suddenly to haunt her and she shuddered suddenly.

  ‘Are you all right, She-she?’ There was concern for her in Kernow’s voice.

  She nodded, trying hard to blot out the mental picture of a large, hairy Fan Qui lying spreadeagled on the floor of her room, his carp-like eyes staring up….

  ‘You first Fan Qui I see without hair hiding face.’

  ‘What did you do in the Hoppo’s house?’

  ‘What you mean, what I do?’ She-she’s voice rose sharply. She knew very well what Kernow meant, but she did not know how to reply to his question. If he learned the truth he might lose all respect for her. She suddenly realised how unhappy this would make her.

  Kau-lin had taken an interest when she heard the line of Kernow’s questioning. Now she came to the aid of her friend. ‘No good you ask She-she what girls do in house of Hoppo. She only just come from her home when we have to leave. No time anyone tell her what do. You want know? I tell. Hoppo very important man. Many Fan Qui come his house pay him plenty money. When they come we serve them tea, sing songs, sometimes. One girl, gone Foochow now, sing very well.’

  The glib explanation rolled off Kau-lin’s tongue easily. Much of it was true. The girls would sometimes sing and one of the girls actually played a musical instrument.

  ‘Wasn’t there some scandal involving one of the traders? I seem to remember one of them died in the Hoppo’s house….’

  ‘Not in house. Found dead outside. He too fat. Drink too much rice wine.’ Glancing quickly at She-she, Kau-lin saw she had paled alarmingly. ‘You take us home now. Too hot here. Where you live? You have house near to mission house?’

  Kau-lin was still chattering when they walked outside the classroom and met Esme returning. Kernow had thought the missionary would be disappointed not to be working for most of the evening, but Esme seemed relieved. She was a large, overweight woman and was finding the intense heat of a Hong Kong summer well-nigh unbearable.

  At the mission house, Kernow declined an offer to go inside and have a drink before returning to the wardroom of the naval barracks, where he had his quarters. Although he was on a language course during the day he was required to fulfil various duties inside the barracks during the evening. He did not want to have to make excuses for returning later than expected. It was his birthday in a few weeks’ time. He was due to be promoted to full lieutenant’s rank on that day and wanted nothing to interfere with the promotion.

  She-she knew nothing of this. She thought he had refused to come inside the mission house because she had said something to upset him. She suspected he might have known a great deal more than he had admitted about the duties of a blue dress girl in the household of Li Hung.

  She would have walked inside with her unhappy thoughts had not Kernow reached out and grasped her arm, bringing her to a halt.

  ‘Are you all right, She-she?’

  ‘I all right. Why you ask?’

  ‘I thought I might have upset you by talking about the Hoppo, and Canton. Made you homesick, or perhaps set you wishing you’d gone to Foochow with the other girls.’

  ‘Other girls no matter to me. Kau-lin my friend. She matters.’

  When Kernow released the grip on her arm, she walked up the pathway to the house. Before reaching the door, she paused and turned around.

  ‘You maybe wish I go Foochow with other blue dress girls?’

  ‘No, She-she, I’m glad you stayed behind. In fact, I would have been very unhappy had you gone with the others.’

  She-she’s gloom dropped away immediately and she was her usual happy self when she entere
d the mission house.

  In her room, Esme Pilkington pulled back the curtain to allow any breeze to enter through the window, should one unexpectedly spring up. She witnessed the brief exchange between She-she and Kernow. Although she could not hear the conversation, she knew that whatever Kernow had said made the Chinese girl suddenly very happy.

  Esme Pilkington’s large build, loud voice and positive manner had always frightened off potential suitors. For the same reasons she had never made any close friends. Consequently, no one was aware that at heart she was a romantic.

  She watched as Kernow hesitated outside the house until She-she passed from his view. Esme smiled sadly. They would have made a wonderful young couple had they met in another place, under different circumstances.

  As it was, Kernow Keats was a young Royal Marine. An officer. He was bound by a great many service regulations – and very many more social conventions. There could be no permanent place in his life for a Chinese girl. Especially one who was reputed to have been used by the Hoppo of Canton to satisfy the lusts of European merchants.

  Fanning herself as she moved away from the window to go downstairs and join the others, Esme Pilkington hoped Kernow would let She-she down with as much gentleness as possible. Common sense told her she could pray for no more.

  Chapter 11

  NANCY AND RONALD Calvin were late returning to the mission house that evening. When the memorial service ended there had been an unexpected invitation to a reception at the home of the Bishop of Victoria. The Calvins might have stayed even later had not Nancy been concerned for Arthur’s well-being.

  When husband and wife walked in to the lounge of the mission house it appeared to Nancy at first glance that her concern had been well founded – although it was no longer associated with his health. Arthur and Kau-lin were alone in the room. Their heads close together, they were both giggling as though sharing some secret.

  Had Nancy cared to ask for an explanation, she would have learned there was an innocent reason for their merriment. Busily engaged in his Chinese studies, Arthur had pronounced a Chinese verb in a manner which gave it a new and decidedly vulgar meaning. Esme and She-she had been with them until only minutes before when Esme retired to her room suffering from heat exhaustion. She-she had gone with her because she was concerned for the missionary.

  Nancy Calvin was in no mood to seek reasonable explanations. The room in which the reception had been held was hot and humid. Her clothes had become glued to her body by perspiration and her head felt as though it were encased in an over-worked kettle-drum. She erupted in an outburst of totally unreasonable anger.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing? You told me you didn’t feel well enough to come to the memorial service and I’ve been worrying myself sick about you for hours. I’ve hurried back here and what do I find? You as fit as a fiddle and alone in the house with this … this Chinese hussy!’

  ‘Kau-lin is not a hussy. We’ve been working hard on my Chinese language and we’re not alone. She-she has just gone upstairs to help Esme to her room. She’s feeling the heat.’

  In a desperate bid to cool his mother’s anger, Arthur continued, ‘We have some tea here, would you like some?’

  ‘No, I would not – and you’ll need to do better than suggesting that other Chinese girl is a suitable chaperone. They’re both as bad as each other. You go up to your room, this instant.’

  Arthur looked at his mother with an expression of hot-eyed humiliation on his face. ‘If you don’t like seeing me talking to my friends and sharing a joke – an innocent joke – then you go to your room and you won’t have to watch me.’

  Nancy’s jaw dropped in astonishment momentarily, then she erupted in anger. ‘How dare you speak to me in such a manner? I’ve been married to your father for almost thirty years and he’s never spoken to me like that. I’ll certainly not accept it from you….’

  ‘What’s going on in here? I’m in my room nursing a dreadful headache and suddenly there’s bedlam down here. What on earth do you think you’re up to?’

  Esme Pilkington, her heavily built body hidden inside a voluminous flannel nightdress and with a scalloped nightcap hiding her hair, boomed a broadside at the angry Nancy Calvin as she sailed majestically into the lounge.

  Taking advantage of the diversion, Kau-lin retired from the room, taking with her She-she who had entered the room behind the missionary.

  In the lounge, the argument between mother and son raged on with Esme attempting loud-voiced mediation and Ronald Calvin maintaining a silent neutrality.

  The argument continued until Doctor Jefferies returned to his house and intervened. Before the medical missionary had fully grasped the cause of the noisy altercation, Arthur turned on his heel and made his way to his room, ignoring his mother’s demand that he return and explain his actions.

  The next morning Hannah Jefferies did her sensible best to placate the still ruffled Nancy Calvin. She explained that the hot and humid summers in this part of the world invariably affected the tempers of newcomers. July and August had become known among the colonists as the ‘suicide months’. She added they might with equal justification be referred to as the ‘murder’ months. It was a time of year when tempers were strained to breaking point. Once this was understood, said Hannah, it was easier to control irrational outbursts such as that which had disturbed the tranquillity of the mission house the previous evening.

  Nancy heard Hannah out with polite reservation. Suicide months or murder months made no difference to her. She had never before had such an argument with her son. It was the fault of that brazen girl from the household of the Canton Hoppo. She should never have been allowed to take up residence in the mission house. Nancy Calvin had come to China to save souls, not to barter them for her son’s moral well-being.

  It was Hannah’s intention to explain away the argument to Arthur in the same manner as she had to his mother, but the youngest Calvin did not put in an appearance for breakfast. Instead, he dressed in his room and went straight from there to the mission school, speaking to no one.

  That day the Europeans had the classroom to themselves. Hannah had tactfully suggested to She-she and Kau-lin that they remain at the mission house that day and give Nancy Calvin’s temper time to cool.

  Kernow was aware of the tension within the Calvin family, but when he asked Esme what had happened, she said only, ‘It’s the heat, dear boy. It’s getting to all of us, but it affects some more than others.’

  Arthur looked very pale and was perspiring heavily. The heat was worse than ever. No one was surprised when, halfway through the morning, he said to Hannah Jefferies, ‘I don’t feel terribly well. I think I’ll go back to the house and lie down for a while.’

  ‘Of course. Stay in the shade and try to drink as much as you can. It’s very important.’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’ Nancy stood up.

  ‘No, you won’t. I’m quite capable of getting back to the house and putting myself to bed, thank you.’

  With this curt refusal, Arthur turned his back on his mother and left the classroom. After a moment’s indecision, a tight-mouthed Nancy sat down again and resumed her lessons. The Chinese girls were at the house and she believed she knew why Arthur had gone back there, but she could say nothing without causing a scene in the classroom.

  When lunch time came, Nancy declared that she and her husband were returning to the mission house to check on the well-being of their son.

  ‘I might as well come with you,’ said Kernow. ‘It’s far too hot to eat anything.’

  Little was said by the members of the small party as it made its way to the house, but Kernow did not mind. There was so much of interest all about them. They passed by houses where children and women sat on the doorsteps, each scooping a mixture of fish and rice at great speed from a bowl held up to his or her chin. The smell of cooking drifted through open doorways behind the Chinese, frequently accompanied by the sound of high-pitched and fast-talking voices.
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  Once, as they passed along a narrow alleyway, they were forced to flatten themselves against a wall as a grinning coolie trotted by with a sagging bamboo pole over one shoulder. At either end of the pole was suspended a huge cage, stuffed to near-suffocation with a variety of complaining chickens.

  Nancy wrinkled her nose at the smells, screwed up her eyes in apparent pain at the noise and made room for the chicken-bearing coolie with bad grace.

  Watching her, Kernow wondered how much thought she had put into the decision for the family to take up missionary work. He did not doubt she had faith enough for the task. He was equally convinced she lacked the patience needed to work among the Chinese. There was also an absence of genuine and essential affection for them. It was something she would need to acquire if she were to succeed in her task.

  His awareness of Nancy Calvin’s shortcomings led Kernow to analyse his own feelings for the Chinese. He accepted that their fatalistic approach to life, coupled with a penchant for prevarication, made dealing with them frustrating. They also tended to say what they thought the European to whom they were talking wanted to hear. Either that or they would agree with whatever he was saying, finding it easier than expressing the truth.

  In spite of such minor irritating traits, Kernow had developed a genuine liking for them as a people. He was content to spend time on the foreshore, surrounded by noisy hard-working coolies. Walking through the street markets at night, surrounded by the sounds and smells of a hundred eatingshops, he felt at ease. Safe even. Then there was She-she….

  It was easy to feel affectionate towards any girl as dainty and attractive as She-she. Yet even taking this into account he knew there was something special about his feelings for her. Something that went far deeper than casual affection for a pretty girl.