15
A Lady in Distress
The room into which Madame Fan-ti showed them was not a large one, but it was a lovely setting for a young and beautiful woman. Its walls were covered with yellow silk—not the muddy Imperial yellow but a bright golden colour—which had just here and there a butterfly embroidered upon it. The carpet was a paler gold with a broad edging and intricate lozenges in blue. The furniture was light in design, and on its larger surfaces there was engraved a pattern of branches with inlaid chips of mother of pearl to represent almond blossom.
It was evident that the Princess had been prepared for her visitors, as she was dressed and bejewelled with considerable richness; but no doubt Madame Fan-ti had advised her that this first interview with them might prove easier if she laid no special stress on her royalty, for she received them informally seated on the edge of a dragon-headed day-bed.
Nevertheless, Kâo and A-lu-te at once went down on their knees and, performing the ancient k’o-t’ou, knocked their heads three times on the floor at her feet. With a pretty gesture she smilingly signed to them first to rise then to be seated in chairs near her.
Gregory had remained with the Lins in the background, and contented himself with a deep bow; but she quickly signalled to them all to be seated. She was, he thought, undoubtedly a good-looking girl, but she appeared somewhat older than he had expected. Her face, also, had something slightly un-Chinese about it. Obviously the financial strain that she had shared with her mother while living in America had aged her a little beyond her twenty years, and her Manchu descent accounted for her strong nose and the lack of fullness in her lips.
Kâo had already launched into an account of the island from which they had come, and the origin of its colonisation. As she encouraged him with understanding nods from time to time, he continued for about half an hour, and wound up with the reason why they had come so far to find her.
When he had finished she looked inquiringly at Lin Wân, and he said gravely, ‘Illustrious lady, this is a weighty decision for one of your tender years to be called on to make. Your Imperial blood carries with it certain obligations. If, in normal times, it fell to your lot to ascend the throne of our ancient Empire, there could be no excuse for your attempting to resist the divine command. But this is a matter of inclination rather than duty. Should you feel yourself capable of filling the unusual and exalted position that is offered you, your doing so will bring happiness to a considerable number of excellent people; so you would be wrong to refuse it. On the other hand, should you be troubled by grave doubts of your fitness to reign over this island kingdom, and prefer to continue to accept, as long as it is available, the few amenities of my humble home, no blame whatever can attach to your refusal of this offer.’
Gregory felt that Lin Wân could not have put the matter more fairly, and he awaited the Princess’s reply with the greatest interest.
Picking up a brush from a writing set on a small table conveniently near her, she laboriously drew some characters on a long slip of paper, then handed it to Kâo.
For a moment he regarded it with a puzzled frown, then Lin Wân looked over his shoulder, smiled and said, ‘I notice an improvement; but I fear the Princess has not yet learned to draw our complicated characters very clearly. Naturally, she has no difficulty in understanding the spoken word; but, you see, to transmit Chinese by the sign language used by the dumb is extremely laborious. As Madame Août’s second tongue was French they always used that when together, and when other people were present the Princess wrote her replies to them in that language. Fortunately I am well acquainted with French myself; so since she became my ward she has also used it to write her replies to me, and I think it would be as well if, for a time at least, she did so with you.’
Having followed their conversation with an anxious look, Josephine picked up a fountain pen and another piece of paper; and began to write on it in a large sprawling hand.
She was still writing when Kâo muttered unhappily, ‘This is most unfortunate. I have never learnt French, and know only the few phrases I picked up during business trips to Paris and while on holidays in France.’ Turning to A-lu-te he added, ‘You do not speak French either, do you?’
She shook her head. ‘No, uncle. I can neither speak nor read it.’
Seeing the look of distress that had come over Josephine’s face, Gregory came to the rescue and addressed her in French:
‘Your Highness will perceive that I speak French fluently. Should you decide to return with us to the island, during the journey I should be honoured to act as your interpreter.’
Her expression immediately brightened, and for a moment it seemed as though she was about to speak, but she made only a little throaty noise. Then she finished what she was writing and handed the slip to Gregory.
The message was ill-spelt and ungrammatical, which told him that she could never have learnt French properly; but he suddenly remembered that her affliction had debarred her from going to school, so she must have picked it up colloquially from her mother. However, her meaning was quite clear, and he gave a free rendering of it in Chinese for the benefit of Kâo and A-lu-te.
‘The Princess writes that she is most sensible of the high honour that you propose for her; but she is deeply indebted to Mr. Lin Wân for having saved her from the Communists, and has become very attached to him and his wife; so she would be loath to leave them. She asks that you should give her time to think the matter over.’
Kâo replied to her by explaining the danger in which the yacht lay of being forcibly requisitioned by the Communists each time she entered Chinese waters. The journey from the coast had taken somewhat longer than they had anticipated, so thirty-one days had already elapsed since they had left her. That meant that they would miss her on her first return to the old mouth of the Hwang-ho, and could hope to catch her on her second return, a week later, only if they started back within the next two or three days.
In answer to this the Princess drew a few simple strokes which embodied the meaning, ‘Sunset tomorrow.’
Assured now of receiving her decision as soon as it was reasonably possible to expect it, Kâo became much more cheerful, and talked to her for some time of the beauties of the island, its riches, and the secure, orderly, peaceful life led by its people.
Scribbling on her block in French, she asked a number of questions about it, and wrote a pretty compliment to A-lu-te upon the unusual colour of her golden eyes; all of which were translated by either Lin Wân or Gregory. Then, as this somewhat difficult conversation began to flag, Madame Fan-ti said that Josephine must be tired from so much excitement. On this excuse they wished her good night and bowed themselves from her room.
Outside the women’s quarters they found Tû-lai patiently waiting for them. As it was still early A-lu-te and Gregory accepted his eager invitation to spend an hour in his apartments before going to bed. On arriving there, he at once went over to put on the gramophone; but A-lu-te disappointed his hopes of dancing with her, as she declared that tonight her mind was so full of the Princess that she preferred to talk.
She was much worried by the thought that not understanding French was going to add greatly to the difficulty of her proving a satisfactory lady-in-waiting if the Princess decided to return with them. But Gregory told her not to worry too much about that, as Josephine had never even had a maid of her own until a few months ago; and that having been brought up in the United States she must at least be able to write simple replies in English. They agreed that she had a pleasant personality, and that her manners, while lacking the finesse of a high-born Chinese, were as good as could be expected from a young woman with an affliction that had debarred her from any social life, even in San Francisco.
Tû-lai took little part in the conversation, and appeared somewhat unwilling to discuss the Princess; but when A-lu-te asked him if he thought she would accept the invitation to become Empress, he replied with considerable feeling:
‘She will be a fool if she doesn’t! You
r island sounds a paradise. How I wish that my grandfather had gone there with yours, and that we Lins now made an eighth to your Seven Families.’
‘If we had, intermarriage would probably have made you my cousin,’ she smiled.
The quick glance he gave her suggested that he would have liked to aim at a closer relationship; so she looked hastily away and hurried on. ‘All the same, I can’t agree with you that the Princess would be a fool not to accept. Of course, such a position must be tempting to any woman’s vanity; but, unless she is far more clever than she appears to be, the amount of power she could wield would be very limited. Then, although the island may sound a paradise, women are still looked upon only as play-things there, and being confined to it for life is a big price to pay for the security it offers. She is obviously happy here, and there are few pleasures or luxuries with which we could provide her that she does not already enjoy. So, to my mind, she has nothing to gain by leaving all this for a new life among strangers.’
‘Ah! But you have forgotten one thing.’ Tû-lai waved a hand towards the costly appointments of his room. ‘How long will all this last?’
‘You mean that the Communists are gradually strengthening their hold on China,’ Gregory asked, ‘and in time will even grip such remote districts as this?’
Tû-lai gave a bitter smile. ‘It is no longer a question of “in time”. They have already done so.’
Gregory raised an eyebrow. ‘You surprise me. We saw very little of them, even in the densely populated provinces further east.’
‘That was because you came by the river and spent only a few hours in one or two of the towns. Even so, you were extraordinarily lucky not to have run into more of them than you did.’
‘They don’t seem to have made any great impression on the country.’
‘Believe me, they have; although you would not have realised it, because you wisely refrained from talking to people, and did not look below the surface. The devastation caused by many years of war and lack of resources has pre-prevented them from carrying out their grandiose plans for creating a new China; but they have made very skilful use of such assets as they have.’
‘In what way?’ Gregory asked.
‘For one, they have been wise enough to realise that China’s billions have always been near the starvation mark. Formerly, after a bad harvest thousands of poor families were left with insufficient rice to see them through to the next. For them it became a terrible temptation to eat the rice they had put aside for seed, and many of them did. The result was starvation from which thousands died annually. Now, the government buys all the rice, and stores enough of it to ensure that no one starves and everyone has sufficient for fresh sowings. Think what that means to the peasants who have lived for many generations in fear of an untimely death. In addition, the Communists have given the first priority in industry to the manufacture and import of agricultural machinery, to further better the peasants’ lot. You must anyhow have seen some of the new ploughs and tractors during your journey.’
‘We saw a few,’ Gregory agreed, ‘just near the towns.’
Tû-lai shrugged. ‘A few years ago you would not have seen one, and China’s agricultural areas cover hundreds of thousands of square miles. Those families who have not yet been given motor ploughs have at least seen them, and are working like devils for a government that promises that all shall be given them in a not-far-distant future.’
‘Then it seems that the Communists are bringing great good to China,’ A-lu-te put in.
‘Up to a point, yes,’ Tû-lai replied. ‘But we shall have to pay for it later, when all culture and freedom of thought has been destroyed, and the Communist ideology forced upon our whole people. To bring that about they are spending vast sums on education, and every teacher in every school is a Communist. Their propaganda too is most skilfully directed and pervades every walk of life. And no one any longer dares to argue against the stream of lies they pour forth, because China is already a Police State, with spies everywhere. We know that they have several of them in this house; but it would be as much as our lives are worth to attempt to expel them.’
‘Why then,’ Gregory asked, ‘if they are already so powerful, do they allow you to go on living here in such luxury? In other countries they have never hesitated to strip wealthy people of their riches.’
Tû-lai shrugged again. ‘Our caravans still do a big trade with Russia, behind which lies centuries of experience; and they know that we run our ships much more efficiently than they could do themselves. We are already reduced to the status of their agents, and face is saved on both sides by a hypocritical pretence that we are enthusiastic supporters of the regime. They would gain little by turning us into a State concern as they already take the lion’s share of our profits. No doubt there are plenty of fanatical Marxists among them who would like to rob us of everything we possess and kill us; but the big shots know that to do so would be to kill one of the few remaining geese in China that still lay golden eggs, and that if such geese are not allowed to retain comfortable nests to lay in they refuse to go on laying. That is why, to all appearances, we continue living here as in the past, and there is no outward sign that they hold a sword above our heads.’
‘I had naturally assumed that you had to make it worth their while to let you carry on; but I had no idea that they allowed you to remain here only on sufferance,’ Gregory said thoughtfully. ‘Since that is the case, though, it amazes me that they still permit you to keep armed retainers.’
‘They have to, for the protection of our caravans,’ came the quick reply. ‘Even the Soviets have not succeeded in putting down brigandage in their sparsely-populated Asiatic territories. But the men are no longer sworn to obey us. Some of the older ones are still loyal; but if a Communist official arrived with an order for our arrest the majority of them would not hesitate to carry it out. And that might happen any time. I do not think it will for a year or two yet, but sooner or later they will decide that they have infiltrated enough of their people into our business to run it. In China, as you must know, only very rarely is anyone made bankrupt. Even before the time of the Great Sage, it was a well-established tradition that no man should smash another’s rice bowl. But these people do it without compunction. One day they will descend on us without warning and fill our mouths with the salt of ruin.’
A-lu-te sighed. ‘How terrible to live always under such a threat. I understand now why you think the Princess would be a fool not to come with us. But why don’t you sell everything while you have the chance, and go to America?’
He looked at her, and then for a long moment at Gregory, before replying. ‘I am sure I can trust you both. That is what we hope to do. At least, as far as it is possible. For many months we have been gradually disposing of certain assets and smuggling the proceeds out of the country. But it is an extremely difficult thing to do on a large scale without being caught. For example, we dare not sell or remove more than a small portion of the priceless treasures in this house. The spies among the servants are too stupid to learn much about our affairs; but they would notice if many of the most valuable pieces disappeared, and would report it. That would be quite enough to give away our intentions.’
‘Then all those lovely things must pass out of the possession of your family,’ said A-lu-te sadly.
‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘And once we are gone these Communist swine will loot even the graves of our ancestors for the jewels that were buried with them.’
After a moment he added on a lighter note, ‘Still, if we don’t leave things too long, we shall get out with our lives and enough money not to have to beg for our rice; so perhaps instead of going to the United States I will ask permission to come to live in your island.’
‘Having been out in the wide world for so long, I fear you would find little to hold your interest there,’ said A-lu-te demurely.
He gave her a meaning smile. ‘In certain circumstances I should be perfectly content to remain there for the rest
of my life; but it would be an added advantage if one could sometimes travel again. As I am quite a good business man perhaps your Council would give me a job in their export department—on the understanding, of course, that if I were married I could take my wife on my travels with me.’
‘You will have to come there pretty soon then, or you will find the position filled.’ Gregory launched the double entendre for fun, but added smoothly, ‘I mean, we recently lost our Export Manager, but as soon as we inform the Council of his death they are certain to appoint someone in his place.’
In view of their conversation Gregory was not particularly surprised the following morning to see in the main courtyard the cloaked and fur-hatted Communist who had saved him from being stoned on the way up from Tung-kwan. He was talking to one of the cooks as Gregory passed through the great yard with A-lu-te and Tû-lai on their way to see a squash-racquets court that the latter had had built. Pointing out the Communist, Gregory told the story; but they were some way away from the squat figure and Tû-lai did not bother to give it a second glance, merely remarking:
‘Perhaps he belongs to their headquarters in Yen-an, or has been sent into the province to collect funds, most of which he will keep himself. There are now many of these small-fry who gain an easy living by terrorising the defenceless; but we should know it already if he meant any harm to us.’
Tû-lai had trained several young men to play squash with him; and Gregory was secretly amused to see that, although two of them showed great ability, all of them lost by handsome margins to their master in the games he had arranged to play as an entertainment for A-lu-te.
That evening, soon after sunset, Lin Wân informed them that Josephine had decided to accept the throne of the island; so they all went to pay her their respects and wish her a happy reign. She received their homage very prettily, but was called on to pay for it by an early lesson demonstrating the way in which a sovereign’s personal wishes have frequently to be sacrificed for the common good.
The Island Where Time Stands Still Page 28