Eastern Shame Girl | Page 6

in Yang-chow. He was just twenty years old, and had moulded his character in accordance with his passion, being a regular visitor at the blue pavilions, where the smiles of painted roses are to be bought. He was making a journey, and had cast anchor for the night at Kua-chow. He was drinking in solitude, bemoaning the absence of companions.
Suddenly in the night he heard a voice more sweet than the sighs of the bird of passion, or than the warbling phoenix. No words seemed adequate, he felt, to describe the beauty of this song. Walking out from his cabin, he found that the music came from a junk not very far distant from his own.
In his eagerness to know who had enchanted him, he told his men to go and question the boatmen. But he learned no more than that the junk had been hired by Li Chia. He obtained no information concerning the singer. He reflected:
"Such a perfect voice could not belong to a woman of good family. How can I manage to see this bird?"
He could not sleep that night. In the morning, at about the fifth watch, he heard the wind roaring on the water. The light of day was strangely veiled by cloud, and flakes of snow were whirling madly. It has been said;
The clouds are swallowing Countless thousands of trees upon the hill. Footprints disappear on many footpaths. The fisher in the bamboo hat On the frail boat Catches only snow and the frozen river.
This snowstorm rendered it impossible to cross the river, and the boats could not be set in motion. Sun, therefore, told his rowers to leave his moorings and to make fast alongside Li Chia's junk. Then, in a sable bonnet and wrapped in his fox-skin robe, he opened his cabin window, pretending to look at the white snow as it fell. Shih-niang had just arranged her hair, and, with her tapering fingers, was pushing back the short curtains to throw out the dregs of tea in the bottom of her cup. The freshened splendor of her rouge shone softly.
Sun saw that celestial beauty, that incantation; he scented that perfume; and his soul boiled over. For a long moment he gazed, and his spirit was as if submerged. But he recovered himself and, leaning out of the window, recited, nearly at full voice, the poem of the "Blossom of the Plum Tree":
Snow covers the mountain where the Sage abides, Under the trees in the moonlight Beauty advances.
Li Chia heard the poem and came out of his cabin, curious to see who was reciting it. In this way he fell into the trap set by Sun, who hastened to salute him, asking:
"Old-Elder-Brother, what is your honorable name? And what is your first name which one does not presume to repeat?"
Having answered in accordance with the convention, Li Chia had to question Sun in his turn. They exchanged such words as are customary between educated men. Finally the libertine said:
"This snowstorm was sent by Heaven to effect our meeting. It is a large piece of fortune for your little brother. I was lonely and without diversion in my cabin. Would it not be my venerable brother's pleasure that we should go to a riverside pavilion and divert ourselves by drinking wine?"
Li Chia answered:
"The water-chestnuts meet at the caprice of the current. How should I not be glad of this offer?"
"Between the four seas all men are brothers."
Then Sun ordered his servant to come with him, sheltering Li Chia under a large parasol. The two men saluted each other again, landed on the bank and, after walking a little distance, found a wine pavilion.
Having entered, they chose seats by the window and sat down. The attendant brought them hot wine, Sun raised his cup to give the signal, and soon the two were conversing freely and had become friends. At length Sun leaned forward and said in a low voice:
"Last night a song arose from your honorable ship. Whose was that voice?"
Wishing to pose as a man of leisure making a journey, Li Chia at once told the truth:
"It was Tu Shih-niang, the famous singing girl of Peking."
"How comes a singing girl to belong to my brother?"
Li Chia then ingeniously told his story, and the other said:
"To marry such a beauty is exceptional good fortune. But will your honorable father be satisfied?"
Li sighed and answered:
"There is no lack of anxiety in my humble house. My father is of a very stern disposition, and as yet knows nothing."
Sun, developing his hidden traps, continued:
"If your honorable father is not placable, where will my Elder-Brother shelter the Beauty whom he has carried away? Have you come to some arrangement with her on this point?"
With heavy brows, La answered:
"My little wife and I have already discussed the matter."
"Your