THE YELLOW SPOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 10

THE YELLOW SPOT.

By LILY STACH

pre* _.■.«_ •;:-,_. th* iearnM H •-. Yin -'-. •r-? h:s con**:.; to h.s mar-rage sv.-.o i Accordingly the .T-.arr.ag- ?,>-._ took • r.'a--e. 0-*:r:-_ to "he „o::.-.:r,-;. :: was ce!*ora*«i w.tbot-t the usual iVa**:n!-* ' and g-a:-:-. Lotus L.iy. attired har.!as gorgeou'ly as _:-.» would nave -.si.hed, . ! with the head dres.? a_ii rr;-.:? nr-amage v.:... was carried :n th.-- red Pro.p.r:tv-a-_r:-Happini--«.-<;;vicg - < ha:r to the hoo-v door of the Cains fami'v. Here she was gravely __->*: by Lucy arid . thing-Ho-Wok. the Tfc:r'i For., and :w.-, <■;-. th«-:r uncle.. an 4 escorted ,- rr , .j, c reception hail. The friends and reia- i . t.-ves of both families to ?*e h.r cross the threshold. The immediate • mombers of :;.<■■ Ching family wor« the! I white ->f mourning—rnvj 0; th* usual ' 'e-iy.rr. of roren.ony tj. c:s;.y:_«_ with : on -.his account. " i The young pair w.--nt through the ' <=_~ha_ge of red silken strings" they ; •"ran.-: from the __.mc wine r-up and pros- j trated themselve.- before the* table-.s of the They -.v...* H-iarried: On h»r marriase morning, most of • Lotus Lily", black fringe had been j tweaked out—to simulate" a high foreI head! This was one indication" of her' J status a; •_> married woman. Though I jit gave her an almost comical aspect, ■ nevertheless she felt very important, .•-■he was very p!eas«l that she had been given to young Lee, she liked his j I gravity and hi. dignity. So the merrvhearted little maiden became Lee's wife, and a very happy little wife she was—in Chinese fashion. She came, of course, to live in the house of her mother-in-law, to whom she ministered htunblv, as in duty bound. If she felt grief when ' th* time came that her prosperous I young husband je:'t Chin Kiang and ! China for the land of the foreign devils. she concealed it in true Chinese fashion. Lott--* Lily's principal companion was the sullen Vien *S"ah. now more illtempered than ever. Vien "N"ah considered herself ill-treated by heaven and by her husband. She had always • done her duty—she had married the ■ man to whom she had been handed over as wife, she had borne him a son, and , Tor all recognition he bad lived away . from her ever since: The matter of ', :11s having a Xumber 2 Fan Kwei wife she had not in the least resented, it was ! !to be expected that Lucy should take ' another wife, and indeed heaven bad ' seen tit to punish the foreign lady for ' her audacity. " ' J Vien "N"ah was convinced that the ' blight of the foreign lady had fallen 8 upon the household. Her promising ' little son, C'hing Lao-Sei, had also been ! l j stricken by the cholera. In his case. - 1 as is often with children, it had been " only a slight attack. But when the I child recovered, it was seen that a soul c jno longer looked out of his eves—the *' ] cholora had left him feeble-minded. s Deeply moved as Lucy had been by J - the death of his fair younj. English wife. a the subsequent death of his father and b the calamity of his little son had over- h whelmed him with the sense of his n responsibilities for all these misfortunes" ~* "Keng Shuey!" he said bitterly to him- j* self and bowed his head. S'

I Utterly wretched among his own | people, he left Chin Kiang. He betook himself to the gorges of the Upper "langtsze, a wild and beautiful region. Here he gave himself up to the occupation he loved most—which indeed never failed to absorb him—the writing of lengthy poetical odes. He could "lose hittiself for days a" a time in the writing of an abstract ode on: ""The Pleasure Men Take in Talking of the Passing of the Seasons." "Youth Flies on the Wings of Success," 'The True Philosopher Can Feed on Wind and Lodge in Water." etc. It larely occurs to a Chinaman to write on iove or passion. To the Chinese mind friendship is a far more noble and beautiful theme for an essay than love between the sexes these latter thoughts are for the privacr and intimacy of domestic life only.

Lucy experienced a strange satisfaction in living this life of complete isolation. He found an abandoned hut and here he slept, attending to his own simple wants, and getting his food from a village some ten miles away.

Into this solitude of his on the rock; above the Niukam t'orge, Clive Benton walked one day. The meeting of the two friends was a mutual surprise and pleasure. Clive, too, was looking tor solitude, but a solitude shared with another sympathetic mind was even more congenial to him.

| He had not seen Jean Elwell after that day at the tea garden. .She had stubbornly refused to sec him when he had called at the I Mission House. A letter he had written jto her had been returned to him unopened. He accepted this as final. He j went back to the Monastery on Pyramid Hill, Ichang, on the Upper Yangtsze i River. He had his anguish of soul, his I mental suffering to go through, he knew he must go through it alone. After several weeks of almost entire isolation at the monastery. he set on* on foot up the Xiukam Gorge. He knew the place well. The wild beauty of the narrow canyon, with its purple "shadows and almost inaccessible rocks, the castellated mountains on the opposite bank, soothed him.

Then, quite unexpectedly lie came I upon Luev. The two men felt the svm- ■ pathetic undercurrent wliich had " so strangely drawn them together here. But in true oriental fashion, neither one -■poke or the trouble tiiat was ffnaw__i 2 at big heart. "

was __:«-. ■:-■■:■-. _:... -_—;3 against r,;*n ■"•■-■■-usations =*re added others, ir._in.at- ■ ir.g dishonesty. I.u.r ha: n=ver ar.-i g-r. ..?■;_ w.-.'. n_on*v among the k-sser official-. A bountiful 1 distrititition of largess is *_:ai*r.i-_a!.y looked tor among Chinese office holder- 1 and 0.T..:_ seekers. Lucy** inferiors had often found him mea*. and supercilious. : As a .onsequonce he had few :'riend=. : hi. Hamlin Degree .v.**. set him aoan a. a mark for er.-y. Clever intriguing on :.-,. part of hia nearest rival? drew iim into something like a quarrel with his superiors. To the accusations brought agains. him :.. stomai to make any reply, or attempt to clear himself. ; fr.e result was that —her. the three years' mourning were over he retired ' from the Diplomatic Seni.:«. virtually! under a shadow, an unjustly accused but -.r.-.-ndicated man. }"en_ Shuev' He accepted his fate with bowed head.' The cay after the tea party at the tea garden of a Thousand Delight*. Ah *-;a had disappeared from Chin Kiang. The visit of Jerry Turner after the party had greatly trouble, the Rev. Jenkins. There was an. at least implied, accusation against, the moral uprightness of his convert. Ah **.:n. The 'clergy- : man determined to go to the tea garden where he had seen him, and ask an ' explanation of Ah Sin. That worthy, I when interviewpd by his ''Pastor.'' was ! of course, able to assume an air of utter ' innocence and explain awa-r his appar- I ent wrongdoing. The missionary retired satisfied, naw. more, he was determined to make Turner admit the injustice done j to Ah Sin, or as he preferred to call him Albert 'I

j _ Meantime, forewarned of the steps jtbat might be taken against him. Ah | Sin, of course, immediately disappeared. "<\ich his natural ahiiity and "intelligence, sharpened by much cunnii-?, he made his way from city to citr. ~ At the back of his mind was alw'avs the intention that one day he would "wreak full vengeance on Lee "and all his family. It was some months later that Ah Sin was acting as a general utility m.-in in a large shipping concern in Hongkong, when one day he learnt that i.is old enemy Lee was booking his passage to ban Francisco. At once his nimble mind suggested to follow. Without any compunction he at once abandoned his job at the shipping office, and within a few days secured another post and signed on as second cook on a second class steamer plying between Hongkong and Honoiulu. Thence, he shortly afterwards made his way to San Francisco.

Here he began a somewhat chequered career, taking up many occupations, legitimate and nefarious! He never lost sight of his chief purpose—revenge upon Lee. Chinatown. San Francisco, is not a large place— most of the Chinese belong to Tongs or Companies, which have their leaders. their "overnments, their meeting places. It j_ by no means a difficult thing to trace a Chinaman here, unless he be in strict hiding. Before many weeks had elapsed. .\h Sing had come upon the track of Ching Lee. In the two years that had pa«ed •Jerry Turner had kept track of Jean Elwell, thougn lie had seen her but seldom. His feelin. for her had grown stronger and warmer—he was really deeply in love with the English girl. But an almost Quixotic sense of loyalty to Clive Benton had kept him from" matin** a formal declaration. =

That afternoon at the tea garden of the Spring of Everlasting Delight had Deen a time of disillusionment and bitter humiliation to Jean Elw.H. After the first shock had passed, her one idea was to find some occupation, some work into which she could throw herself and forget.

j As an e-cperiment. she went on a -diori visit to a Mr. Adam., a friend of Jerry turners, who lived at Szechuan and was by way ot being an amateur missionary -Mrs. Adams' personality, rather than the work itself, appealed to the girl Here, tor some months, she tried to do the work of a missionary i mon . t lie Chinese. But something in her revolted —-=ne nad to give it up. to her own disappointment, and to Mrs. Adams' very real re-r-ret. She was determined, however not to return to England until *he co_H i>e able to tell Uncle Arthur that s_e had done some good in the world. (To be continued daily-;.