Novelist.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2087, 1 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

Novelist.

CIIHITOVX CONTRABANDS. A Sketch from Life in San FranciscoLee Hop Tong, most aristocratic Chinese physician in San Francisco, sallied forth one morning clad in holiday attire. A close fitting cap, with a black velvet border and i large coral button in the centre of the crown, surmounted his neatly shaven [•ate, and hi* long queue was intertwined with the finest and glossiest of black silk strands. His arms were invisible—doubled up like the wings of a chicken within the capacious sleeves of his purple brocade blouse. His nether limbs were resplendent in voluminous trousers of skyblue silk, neatly confined at a sufficient distance from his ankles to display a spotleu extent of well-starchcd muslin hose above the embossed velvet shoes, with thick felt soles, in which his shapely feet were encased, The air of unwonted (eetivity which cliaractcrizcd his costume found no corresponding expression of hilarity upon the doctor's face. His head was bent forward until his chin rested upon the shining brass buttons of his frock; sombre shadow* brooded over the merry lines of his smooth, fat countenance, and he walked slowly and wearily, like one bowed beneath a heavy burden. From time to time he cast a troubled look toward hia companion, quickly withdrawing hia eyes as he encountered the wistful gaze of a small being perched in the latter's anna. This animated bundle of humanity possessed a pair of remarkably bright eyes and his rosy complexion and Hibernian features proclaimed his Caucasian descent.

The doctor’s companion was Officer Canfield, a special policeman, whose Wat embraced the rookeries of Waverly Place, and the child he carried in his arms was a white infant, purchased from a Folsom Street foundling hospital for a stated amount of cash in hand paid, and which had been for a year past the light of Lee Hop Tong’s abode. The trio were on their way to the rooms of the Society for the Protection of Children, whither the pagan had been summoned to answer for nispart in an infamous traffic. For the hundredth time since its organisation the managers of the Children’s Society were skirmishing along the borderland of an atrocious evil, lacking the hardihood or the resolution to strike boldly at ita core. The foundling* hospitals of San Francisco annually cloaked a sum of infamy and crime, beside which the atrocities of the French baby-farms pale into insignificance. Subject to no State or local law, they were securely hedged in from public inspection. The physicians and matrons in charge were thus enabled to make false returns to the authorities. Their every movement was enveloped in mystery and secrecy. It is needless to add that these institutions were paying speculations, receiving large sums of hush money from the unhappy women who were their patrons, and driving shrewd bargains in the disposition of comely and healthy infants, while the sickly and unattractive passed silently out of existence. Prominent among these establishments were two of pretentious appearance, situated in fashionable neighborhoods, into whose keeping young girls belonging to reputable families were frequently confided, to preserve intact the outward sanctity of maidenhood by the sacrifice of the best and noblest instincts of womanhood.

The location of the headquarters of the Children's Society was in itself a revelation and a confession. Occupying the upper floor of an old fashioned brick building on Merchant Street—on the one hand it acknowledged its kinship with crime and shame by abutting on the ugly excrescence of crumbling brick known as the City Prison,and on the other leaned on the stout arm of the Jaw, symbolized by the chamben of aereral leading attorneys. A wretched gray horse, feeble and emaciated, with great sores on its back, stood in the street below ; his ears pricked up with an air of mild triumph, as be watched the driver marching off in the direction of the jail, when the doctor and his escort ascended the stone steps and passed through the low, iron gates which guarded the outer entrance to the building. A angular spectacle was presented in the roonw dedicated to the society's use. Disposed throughout the apartments were no m than thirteen white infanta, ranging from four months to two years of age, arrayed alike in Oriental costume. The greater number of these wore soiled and ragged garments, and their attendants cmnteted chiefly of Chinese women, whose paintad faces. gundy ailken attire, and exfnmkm of passive ignorance united to asaart thair vicious calling. 11W doctor's entrance was followed by tho adjust of a Chinese priest of satur■flM and forbidding aspect, clad in his rohea of ceremony, consisting of a long, full gown of some rich stuff, whose vivid

_ a snu ;'.c a siiaip chromatic discord with the broad ribbons of brilliant magenta that depended from his gorgeous head gear. He held by the hand a little girl some two years of age. The two latest accessions to the little waifs were clothed with a care and nicety that proclaimed their adoption by a superior class. Dr. Leo Hop Tong’s charge wore loose pantaloons of pea-green silk, a scarlet blouse, copper-toed morocco shoes, while his small head was adorned with a marvellous cap. composed of overlapping folds of variegated ribbons interwoven with bright tinsel threads. The little girl who walked by the grim priest’s side was clad in a loose blouse of bright yellow cloth, with trousers of violet silk, pink stockings, and tiny embroidered shoes. Her head was covered with a quaint hood of red merino, embellished with two mimic horns above either temple, each finished with a silken tassel. Grotesquely habited though she was, her face was one of pathetic beauty. Her skin was fair and of pearly transparency, its delicate coloring putting to shame the artificial carmine on her lips, and a single tendril of curling hair, that had escaped from its close confinement, strayed across her forehead like a sunbeam at play. Glowering in the background stood Mother Perfidy, invoked from her Folsom Street lair by the menace to her profitable commerce of purchasing human souls and vending human bodies. The brawny matron of Sixth Street asylum appeared at her side, and over them towered the venerable white hairs of the Patriarch himself, who, posing as a philanthropist, for years pursued his nefarious traffic under the direct sanction of the State, until enlighted public opinion and legislative enactment deprived him of his annual appropriation. The humane asaocation was represented by the President and Secretary and a few of the most active members, supplemented by a corps of benevolent ladies, who stood ready to provide the small waifs with homes in certain charitable institutions under their charge. At the last moment their number was augumented by two new arrivals. An elderly lady entered, with the smilim.' assurance of one inured to the trials of iblicity, patiently borne for dear chaii:>'s sake, while the constrained manner of her young companion seemed to announce a novice in the field.

A broad-shouldered young fellow, who had been engaged in earnest consultation with the officers of the society, moved eagerly forward to welcome the newcomers. He hdd a finely moulded face, with a square jaw, a pair of fearless blue eyes, and a mobile mouth. A practiced student of physiognomy would have declared that David Chase could be bold as a lion in defence of a righteous principle, or in the championship of another’s cause, or the most arrant coward in pleading his own claims. He greeetd the elder lady with a cordial clasp of the hand, contenting himself with a low bow to the younger woman, and a stammering saluation.

“ I can't tell you how glad I am see you here, Miss Ainsworth. If other young ladies of your class could interest themselves in our efforts, the sum of misery and wrong in our community would by materially lessened." “ I protest, Mr. Chase. You must not give me credit that I do not deserve. I met Mrs. Baxter at the School of Design, and she took mo captive. It promised a new sensation.”

She spoke so wearily and with such a fine scorn of any philanthropic pretensions on her own part that he was abashed, and would gladly have recalled his effusive speech.

Miss Ainsworth followed her friend as she made the tour of the rooms, stopping to pat the small outcasts on the head or to address an occasional patronising word. The older lady smiled at the uncanny aspect and solemn faces of the wee creatures, and condescended to drop some bonbons into their laps, finding amusement in the quick forfeiture of their childish dignity. As they passed the sallow priest, the child seated on the chair beside him lifted her pleading eyes to the young lady’s face. For a moment Mias Ainsworth steadily returned the look, and then, moved by a sudden impulse, stooped and lifted the little girl’s hood, disclosing a singular mark on her forehead, where blue veins interlaced and formed a triangle on the white skin. “ Queer little beggera, are they not

Chase would not challenge Miss Ainsworth's ridicule by laying bare the indignation and compassion that stirred his honest heart, while contemplating the degraded purpose for which these innocents of his own race had been designed. He was unprepared for tbo cold rebuke he received ;

“ Can you call them by no better name ?”

,; Do you wish me to speak out all that is in my mind ? Shall I denounce the inhuman wretches who abandon thoir tender offspring to such a fate ? the civilization that tolerates such a crying outrage ? ’’ The girl faltered and moved back, as if she had received a blow. For the third time that morning David Chase took himself to task for his inconsiderate speeches. A man should have better sense, he told himself, fiercely, than to force such offensive suggestions upon a girl, as delicately reared, as innocent of evil as this Olive Ainsworth. He watched her as she quietly withdrew to the side of the room, taking up her stand beside one of the oldfashioned French windows, reaching out her hand to hold the sash slightly ajar, that acurrentof air might circulate through the close apartment. She was very beautiful, he wistfully reflected, noting the clear cut features, the graceful poise of her head, the dreamy eyes, the gently modelled figure, clad in a neatly fitting suit of dark brown cloth. Fair, accomplished, occupying a recognized place in society, why should the mad desire possess his soul to make this peerless woman his wife V He, a poor attorney, dependent upon his slender practice, cherishing a stock of lofty ambitions, and at the mercy of a host of philanthropic notions that kept him in a state of chronic impecuniosity ; possessing no gifts beyond a faculty for work and a dogged perseverance that kept him afloat in the face of every obstacle. He reasoned with himself that even if his prospects justified the thought of such a union, there would be no congeniality between them. No life bred altogether on the sunny side of existence could appreciate the grave demands, the sober issues of his own. Only the touchstone of pain could bring tfjs irresponsible girlhood into sympathy with liis own mental and spiritual being, and ho was unselfish enough to pray that it might never be applied.

There was work to be done, and he ad dressed himself resolutely to tho business before him. The peculiar e

which the society was called upon to act was wholly without a precedent, and it was necessary to proceed with caution, consulting the highest legal authorities. The letters of adoption produced by the Chinese were conclusive upon their face, and it was deemed desirable to avoid long and tedious circumlocution.

livin' to seo a choild ol mine sportiu of a pigtail!” She turned upouqMor Lee Hoop Tong in a blaze of anger, magnificent to witness. “And so ye're the rich banker ould Missus Perfidy tould me was a-dyin’ to adopt me choilcl!, An’ ye dared to take this swate chayrulj to yer pest-house an' fade him on rats, ye yellow-faced, sleekskinned Chinayse r-r-rascal I” In her fury, Mistress Murphy shook her fist in the Mongolian’s face. The doctor received her torrent of abuse and flood of invective without resentment. The sombre shadows on his face deepened. He entered but one mild protest. “No feed him rat. Rat no good fo' baby stummick. Pay black looman—you call him negloo—nuss baby, one, tloo, tlee, fi’ mont. Baby glow big, stlong, tellee looman no wantee any mo’. Gettee milkman bling nice flesh jessey milk allee day. You sabe V”

The status of eleven of the children was readily established. A wise law of the State, frequently invoked for the protection of the innocent, proved applicable to the case, and the debased creatures who claimed their custody were marshalled away, to be booked for the “ tanks ” in the city prison, on the charge of harboring minors in their abodes of shame. As the fallen women filed out of the room, they stole shy glances at their Caucasian sisters. Unconscious vice gazed in mute bewilderment at conscious virtue. Mrs. Baxter drew aside her skirt, to preserve it from contamination, as they passed. The two cases that awaited adjudication were of a more complex nature. No legal statute debarred a respectable foreigner from acquriug a title to a child of another race ; and, in the absence of any natural guardian, it was difficult to see how the Society could assert its right to interfere. “ Such practices are undoubtedly opposed to the policy of our civilization,” asserted the president ; “ but one dare not override the law of the land in deference to a sectional prejudice. If we transgress our authority, the matter will bo dragged into the higher courts. If the courts sustain us, we shall bring down upon us the maledictions of the whole country east of the Rocky Mountains.” “ Suppose we question the fellows themselves. We may trap them into some sort of damaging admission,” naively suggested Chase.

The proposal was promptly put into force, and an informal court of inquiry convened. Lee Hop Tong was first to take the witness stand, having previously received a solemn admonition that his cause wouldbe best served by accurate and truthful representation. Olive Ainsworth remained at the window, looking out upon the narrow, grimy street. A light rain was falling, the first of the season, and the dusty fronts of the tall, stuccoed buildings opposite were frescoed in novel designs by the water that trickled from their eaves. Muddy brooklets swept woefully down the worn basalt blocks, and formed miniature lakes in the depressions of the pavement. The sky lowered overhead with the promise of an impending deluge. The prison van rattled noisily over the stones, and a coffin waggon sped up the street in the direction of the Receiving Hospital. “ Where you get him ?” demanded the president of Dr. Lee Hop Tong, considerately adapting his language to the comprehension of the Mongolian, and designating, as he spoke, the rosy-cheeked boy who leaned confidingly against the physician's knee.

From an inner pocket of his capacious blouse the doctor produced a bundle of papers and solemnly drew forth a halfdozen receipted milk-bills, whicli lie laid before the infuriated mother with all the dignity and courtesy of an embassador who presents his credentials at a foreign court.

Mrs. Murphy’s wrath visibly abated. Certain early disadvantages of education detracted from the satisfaction she might otherwise have felt in reviewing the evidence of the careful provision which had been made for tbe welfare of her son ; but she had already received more tangible testimony. Her motherly hands had made a series of systematic explorations beneath the child’s loose garments, and numerous vigorous pinches of his limbs and joints, beneath which the young Murphy winced, proved the lad to be sound in flesh and firm of muscle. She could not repress a broad smile of pride as she inserted her finger in his mouth and was rewarded by a vicious nip from a double row of sharp ivories.

With a disdainful wave of the hand the Chinaman spumed the proffered service of an interpreter, and undertook the conduct of his own case.

“ Gettee him Horn one looman, Missee Puffidy, him stan oba da.” nodding in the direction of Mother Perfidy, who scowled back a recognition. “ Him Missee Puffidy gettee velly sick—hab lame leg. He send fo’ me. I go. Gib him med’ein, makee him leg well.’’ Lee Hop Tong's speech was characterised by the confusion of genders habitual among his countrymen, and wound up with an adroit flourish of his professional skill.

“And Mother Perfidy sold you the baby ?’’ “Mo telle you. Missee Puftidy say me, ‘ You gettee mally ? 1 Me say, ‘ Yes, me gettee mally.’ He say, ‘ You gettee chile? ' I say, ‘ No, gettee no chile.’ He say, ‘ You wantee him litee baby V ’ Ivelly glad takee baby.” “And how much money did you pay Mother Perfidy for the baby, Dr. Tong 1 ” insisted the secretary. But the wily pagan was not to be betrayed into any compromising admission. “No buy him. Takee him allee same my boy. You tink I sell him tlee, fo' tousan’ dolla ? Not much ! Missee Puftidy say he mudda velly sick, velly poo’; no takee ca’ him baby. Him wantee nicee home littee fellow. Makee you pleasant of he, Lee Hop. You sabe plesant, allee same Clismas, New Yes’? Make me plesant him baby. I makee him plesant money. No buy, no sell. You sabe ? ”

“ I’ve nothin’ agaynat yc, sor ; but I’ll relayve ye from any farther consarn on me son’s account. Not but ye’ve done very well—for a haythcn 1" she added, with crushing condescension. She re-arranged the gay cap on the child’s head, assuring the doctor that she would “ ray turn the garments on the morrow.” “ Good-day to ye, sor. Bo kind enough to make outyer bill, and I’ll endeavor to pay you for the thrubble an’ ixpinse you’ve been to.”

Lee Hop Tong could maintain his composure no longer. His look of immobility fell from him like a mask. His voice, hitherto the monotonous sing-song of his race, developed new-found capacity for emotional expression. “ You payee me keep him warm. You payee me feed him. What you payee me for lub him. I got mally velly long—sebenteen yea’. Hab no baby. Bimeby me get old ;my wife get old. Nobody take ca’ me ; nobody take ca’ my wife. W’ite looman no wantee baby. I tink get one w’ite chile, be good to him, bling up all same ray chile. Bimeby he glow up, makeo sma’t man, takee ca’ me, my wife. I likee him allee same fadda, modda. He cut teef, getee fleba, sick many night. Me up some time allee night; takee in my ahm, makee him go ‘ by-by sleep ’”— swinging his arms to and fro with a rhythmic motion. “ Now baby allee gone, I velly solly, my wife velly solly. I tink baby gone killee my wife. Cly allee day, no sleep night. We go to bed, go sleep, wake up—oh, whe’ baby!” The tragic start with which he concluded would have done credit to the histrionic stage. However well Lee Hop Tong had been coached to protect his legal rights, there was nothing counterfeit in his emotion. The tender, fickle, Iriih heart melted beneath the spell of his broken eloquence. Tears and smiles chased each other in rapid succession over the mother’s face, and when the lusty boy reached out his arms to his adopted sire, fastening his fingers to the folds of the doctor’s blouse, Mrs. Murphy offered no resistance.

A smile ran over the face of the attorneys present at this skilful evasion of the letter of the law. It was plain that the Chinaman had been coached by able counsel. They examined the papers of adoption, duly witnessed and bearing a notary's seal, observing that the name of the adopted father was written in a different ink from the body of the document, and apparently at a later date, confirming thoir suspicions that Mother Perfidy kept a stock of the documents on hand.

“You likeo boys, Le Hop Tong?” asked the president, temporizing, addressing the Mongolian in a jocular tone. “ Home in China, no likee girls. Too many girls, drown ’em ? ” “ Oh, no, no! Nebba’ dlown ’em velly bad. The doctor’s face was owlish in its expression of horror and disapproval. His eloquent disavowal aroused the interest of thoughtful listeners. Was it possible that they had stumbled across a Chinaman possessed of such exalted views that he dared openly express his condemnation of one of the most ancient and honored customs of the Flowery Kingdom ? “Oh, come now, doctor,” persisted Chase. “ What do you do with your surplus feminine population. How do you do, when too many girls “No dlown. Dlown ’em very bad,” gravely reiterated the doctor. “Put hand oba mout’. Smudda ’em. - ’

The sensation created by this exclamation had not wholly subsided when further deliberations were interrupted in an unexpected manner. There was a sound as of a cyclone tearing through the corridor, outside, a fierce parley at the door, and a ruddy-faced Irish woman burst into the room in a state of wild excitement. Disregarding the astonished glances cast upon her, unmindful of the formal proceedings whose even tenor she had disturbed, she hastily scanned the grotesque little figures in their uncouth attire, then seized the red-cheeked boy with noisy demonstrations of affection and wrath. “Ooh, me darlint, an’did mother forsayke ye in her thruble an’ want, wid the siven mouths to fade, and feyther slaypin’ out at Lone Mountain. Blissed treasure ! Niver again shall yelayve me, if it's to pack ye on me back I’ll be oblayged to do whin 1 work over the tub. Wirrah! wirrah ! All bedaycked with bay-then trappings, an’ ycr illcg.inl suit of hair claim shaver, as a iddv's note. Alack's the day that I'm

“We will pass on to the next case,” said the president, kindly. “ I foresee that Mrs. Murphy, together with Lee Hop Tong and his good wife, will adjust the matter among themselves. ”

What ailed Olivo Ainsworth that she should rove so restlessly about the room, staring at the choice engravings on the wall with blurred vision that saw only a baby's wistful face and a pair of forlorn blue eyes, her heart throbbing wildly as she listened to the rival claimants of a little child’s affection ? As the contest reached an amicable settlement she resumed her former post at the window, apparently an interested spectator of the crowd that surged along Montgomery Street below. No one who looked upon her calm face divined the wild strife raging within, the hitter cup of memory that the girl was forcing upon herself, the brave resolve that was growing in her heart. As the president reviewed the circumstances under which the remaining child had been abandoned and found a purchaser in the person of the priest, Miss Ainsworth turned her head and fixed her eyes with a look of strange intensity upon the solitary little creature, over whom the grim fanatic kept ward. Up to this time the child had waited her turn with a patient gravity beyond her years, but as she perceived that she had become the subject of general attention, she searched the faces around her, and dwelt at last upon Chase’s sterling countenance, Looking at him steadily, she pointed to her feet, while the muscles at the corners of her eyes contracted as if from pain. “ Kea'k tung!"’ They all looked inquiringly at the interpreter, a Bohemian journalist, who had picked up a smattering of several Oriental tongues during a vagabond pilgrimage abroad. He, in turn, bent forward and directed his gaze upon the little girlls feet.”

“ By George ! Chase, the little one’s in torture. Look at her feet.” In an instant Chase was on his knees before the child. Long, skinny fingers clutched at his sleeve, and the priest’s broken jargon sounded in his ear. “Nosabe? Foot allee light. Makee him allee same fine lady—littee-foot looman.”

The apostle of Confucius was startled out of his customary reserve by this menace to one of the most revered practices of his country. Chase shook oil' his hand with a look of savagery, and with tender and dexterous fingers drew oil' the tiny pointed shoes and flung them to the floor. Through the spicy atmosphere of Eastern perfumes that seemed to exhale from the small maiden a foetid odor was disseminated. Snatching a pen-knife from his pocket, the young man severed a broad band <>f ribbon, i igblly bound about (lie lues, and, removing bandage after

bandage, at last disclosed two little feet in the first stages of deformity, inflamed aud swollen, and surrounded by a fringe of decaying flesh. The pitying men and women who bent over the young sufferer were surprised by a sudden movement without their circle. Silently and swiftly as a stream that with one bound overleaps the barriers erected across its native course, Olive Ainsworth crossed the room, and the little group divided to admit her. Her fine eyes were ablaze with indignant horror, her breath came and went in labored respirations, but her face was glorified with a light that no one had ever seen there before. Humbly kneeling before the child, she covered with kisses and bathed with her tears the poor, maimed feet of one as pure and sinless as Him before whom knelt Magdalen of old.

Mrs. Baxter wiped a little moisture from her own oyes as she looked around iu gentle triumph. She cherished a belief that the human soul attains its noblest development only through actual contact with sin and misery, and she was unable to disguise a feeling of mild exultation at this striking exposition of her theory, Olive Ainsworth’s heart had been found. Then the good woman grow uneasy. After her first passionate gush of tears and broken murmurs of endearment, the girl gave way to hard, dry sobs, hiding her face in the child’s garments, her arms embracing the small, bare limbs. The child submitted to the proceeding with the same strange apathy that had previously characterized her demeanour, won by heaven knows what dreary ordeal of coldness aud neglect. The elder lady laid a restraining hand on the young lady’s shoulder. “ Olive, you must not let your sympathies run away with you in this fashion. Quiet yourself, my dear. ”

Her remonstrance fell unheeded. The girl raised her face, eloquent with love and louring, stretching out her arms to the child, while a single word left her lips: “ Darling!”

There was something in the impassioned cry that sent a thrill through every heart. In the midst of their every-day, prosaic lives, before their dull, practical vision, a romance and a tragedy were unfolding, to whicli this word held the key. The sound of her voice aroused the child from its oriental stoism, restoring some lost principle of spiritual vitality, animating its being like an electric spark.

The beautiful flower of human love budded in the little one’s heart and blossomed in its face. The small mouth quivered, the sad eyes became radiant with joy, and glittered with unaccustomed tears. Extending its arms, with a glad cry, it sobbed aloud as it was gathered to the girl’s breast.

“My dear I” Mrs. Baxter's eyes were overflowing at this proof of the tender depths of her young friend’s nature, but commonplace prudence asserted itself. “It is very sweet of you, very beautiful; but really there is no occasion—you must not be so prodigal of your sympathy. The child will be provided for. Think,” she added, in a tragical whisper, “ think of the quarter from which she was taken—the diseases that breed in every comer of Chinatown."

Olivo Ainsworth rose to her feet, cradling the child upon her left arm, while with her right hand she covered the dingy little fingers that sought her white neck in untaught caress. For a brief space of time she scanned the questioning faces about her, forecasting their altered expression when she should utter the words that were trembling on her lips. Her determination never once faltered. The battle had been fought and won. Her face was pale and wet, but her eyes were illumined with the holiest sentiment ever consecrated to womanhood.

“Itis my right. She is my child,” she said.

It is very still in the room as she turned to secure a discarded wrap lying on a sofa at one side, and to fold it tenderly about the child. One man grasped by intuition the whole tragical [story—the wretched error that had well-nigh wrecked the life of the motherless girl; the flight from a shame too terrible to face ; the crushing burden of remorse and wrong that had embittered her whole existence and turned life into hollow mockery. The woman of his love had fallen from the heights of maidenly innocence and purity, on which his fond fancy had enthroned her, only to rise to the loftier plane of self-immolating womanhood.

Unmindful of the others' presence, David Chase crossed the space that lay between thorn, and looked reverently into her eyes, where undying penitence and pain couched passive for a time beneath the holy spell of victorious mother love. Solemnly and tenderly he took in his own the white hand that pressed the baby’s palm. Before the worthy band of philanthropists, who zealously labored to alleviate material ills, while blind to the complex workings of the human heart; in the face of tho foul agents of evil, who beheld in the soul of every fellow-creature the reflection of their own depraved natures; in full view of the righteous women, whose sentiment of outraged virtue strove with the deeper sympathy of motherhood and compassionate thought of the evils which beset unprotected girlhood; before the grim priest, who stared upon the scone in stolid indifference, Chase carried the hand, unresisting, to his lips.