PATCHWORK PIECES

Otago Witness, Issue 3972, 29 April 1930, Page 6

PATCHWORK PIECES

By Eileen Service.

(Special for the Otago Witness.)

CLIL—THE CASKET.

In that city was a merchant who -faded in curios. Through his hands .here passed a stream of rich and costly .rcasures, and, so many had he bought and sold, now from one source, now ;rom another, that he was a man regarded with deep respect as being of all merchants the cleverest and most learned. Jf himself he used to say that fate had treated him kindly. Her visits had always benefited him. He had little to desire. Nevertheless, there was one thing that he desired greatly—to find the jade casket containing the king’s ruby.

It was a casket with a mystic origin. A young king, wishful of going on a pilgrimage, had put the badge of his royalty—a magnificent ruby—into the hands of an artificer, whom he had bade fashion for it a dwelling-place where it would be safe until required again. With a cunning hand the man had executed the order and brought to the king a jade casket, curiously carved. Within, he said, was the royal ruby, there to- lie hidden as long as the king decreed, for the casket was fastened in a secret fashion which no one but himself knew of. The king had placed the casket in a temple and gone over tile seas. But he had never returned, for a fever had struck him and he had died. The casket had remained in the temple until the building was assailed by invaders, after which it had been passed from hand to hand of those who revered the king's memory. But, no one having discovered its secret, the ruby was still inside. It was this rubv that the merchant .craved.

One day there came into his shop a woman, who said:

“My master, the old money-lender, died this morning. He left this" for you as something you would value.”

The merchant with surprise thanked the woman and took from her the box she had brought him. When he opened it, he found that it contained a jade casket inside which, as his wits told him, was the king’s ruby. Then was the merchant happy indeed a man drunk with delight. He fell on his knees in an ecstasv of joy. He thanked the gods for his good fortune. By an act of fate had his dearest wish been granted. The ruby of the king was his.

In a private room he examined his gift, touching it delicately and gazing upon it entranced. Its cool, ° clear beauty filled him with rapture. The pallor of its colour made him hold his breath; It was circular in shape, a design of exquisite carving—all except in one place which had been left quite smooth. A curious feeling caught the merchant when he saw this, for the place was like a mirror in which he could see his own face. But what a face, so enhanced, so exalted! And yet it was liis own. He stroked the casket as if it were a living thing. It bewitched him.

Later he took it to his wife, that pale, slim woman, lovely as a flower, whom he had married the previous vear. She held it in her two hands, turning it to the light. A strange look passed across her face.

‘ It is a rare thing,” she said, ‘ but a rarer thing is hidden within it. It is like a fine body masking a finer soul.” Once more she held it, the light warm cn its surface. Then she put it down and would not look at it again. The merchant grew daily more fond of his treasure, and spent hours fondling snq regarding it. But he could not find the secret of its opening. How to possess himself of the ruby he did not know. Then, one day, he made a surprising discovery: There was no opening at all in the jade! “When the artificer made it,” he told his wife, “he must have sealed the stone. It is scant wonder that no one has ever unfastened it. The ruby is held forever.”

“No,” she answered, “not if you will break the jade.” But the merchant stared at her in horror:

“Break the jade! ” She turned to him, the strange look once more in her eves.

“Yes,” she said, “the ruby is more precious.”

But the merchant would not harbour the thought. He put it from him, hating it, fearing it. Break the casket in its carven richness? No. a thousand times no! So he continued to gaze on it and finger its contours, continued to see his face in its smooth, beautifying side.

One evening when he returned to his home he found his wife gone. A scroll handed to him by a frightened servant explained her absence. When he had read it the merchant covered his face. For what she had -written was thus: —

“ You have always loved appearance more than truth, always preferred visible beauty to beauty you could _ not see. That is why I am leaving you this night and going into the sisterhood, from where you will never be able to take me. I have told you before of the immortal soul of me,, but you have ever overlooked it in the delight you found in my mortal loveliness. As "if that latter were anything more than a mask! But you would not. realise. “ So I have gone, and with me that other piece of beauty which has allured

you so often—the casket of jade. Within was a stone signifying a king’s royalty. But you would never recognise it because by so doing you would have had to disregard the husk in which it was placed. I have therefore taken it to give it to the holy Order into whicli I am entering. There it can be used worthily. There are men who always mistake the shadow for the substance, and who’ worship a ray coming through coloured* glass rather than light itself. You are such a man. We were your possessions,* the casket and I, and yet, in neither ofus would you recognise the true worth? How often have I tried to open youri eyes! But you would not be shown. “This is a sorry parting; but to live, with you was sorrier. For could you only have understood, with that very, soul tire existence of which you ever, disregarded, I loved you.”