The Ragged Edge | Page 4

his glance speculatively over the
assortment and select that individual who promised to be the most
companionable. He was a philosopher. Usually his charges bored him

with their interrogative chatter, for he knew that his information more
often than not went into one ear and out of the other. To-day he
selected the girl, and gave her the lead-chair. He motioned the young
man to the rear chair, because at that hour the youth appeared to be a
quantity close to zero. Being a Chinaman in blood and instinct, he
despised all spinsters; they were parasites. A woman was born to have
children, particularly male children.
Half a day had turned the corner of the hours; and Ah Cum admitted
that this girl puzzled him. He dug about in his mind for a term to fit her,
and he came upon the word new. She was new, unlike any other woman
he had met in all his wide travel. He could not tell whether she was
English or American. From long experience with both races he had
acquired definitions, but none snugly applied to this girl. Her roving
eagerness was at all times shaded with shyness, reserve, repression. Her
voice was soft and singularly musical; but from time to time she uttered
old-fashioned words which forced him to grope mentally. She had
neither the semi-boisterousness of the average American girl nor the
chilling insolence of the English.
Ah, these English! They travelled all over, up and down the world, not
to acquire information but rather to leave the impress of their
superiority as a race. It was most amusing. They would suffer amazing
hardships to hunt the snow-leopard; but in the Temple of Five Hundred
Gods they would not take the trouble to ask the name of one!
But this girl, she was alone. That added to his puzzle. At this moment
she was staring ahead; and again came the opportunity to study her.
Fine but strong lines marked the profile: that would speak for courage
and resolution. She was as fair as the lily of the lotus. That suggested
delicacy; and yet her young body was strong and vital. Whence had she
come: whither was she bound?
A temporary congestion in the street held up the caravan for a spell;
and Ah Cum looked backward to note if any of the party had become
separated. It was then that the young man entered his thought with
some permanency: because there was no apparent reason for his joining
the tour, since from the beginning he had shown no interest in anything.

He never asked questions; he never addressed his companions; and
frequently he took off his cap and wiped his forehead. For the first time
it occurred to Ah Cum that the young man might not be quite conscious
of his surroundings, that he might be moving in that comatose state
which is the aftermath of a long debauch. For all that, Ah Cum was
forced to admit that his charge did not look dissipated.
Ah Cum was more or less familiar with alcoholic types. In the
genuinely dissipated face there was always a suggestion of slyness in
ambush, peeping out of the wrinkles around the eyes and the lips. Upon
this young fellow's face there were no wrinkles, only shadows, in the
hollows of the cheeks and under the eyes. He was more like a man who
had left his bed in the middle of convalescence.
Ah Cum's glance returned to the girl. Of course, it really signified
nothing in this careless part of the world that she was travelling alone.
What gave the puzzling twist to an ordinary situation was her manner:
she was guileless. She reminded him of his linnet, when he gave the
bird the freedom of the house: it became filled with a wild gaiety which
bordered on madness. All that was needed to complete the simile was
that the girl should burst into song.
But, alas! Ah Cum shrugged philosophically. His commissions this day
would not fill his metal pipe with one wad of tobacco. The spinsters
had purchased one grass-linen tablecloth; the girl and the young man
had purchased nothing. That she had not bought one piece of linen
subtly established in Ah Cum's mind the fact that she had no home, that
the instinct was not there, or she would have made some purchase
against the future.
Between his lectures--and primarily he was an itinerant lecturer--he
manoeuvred in vain to acquire some facts regarding the girl, who she
was, whence she had come; but always she countered with: "What is
that?" Guileless she might be; simple, never.
It was noon when the caravan reached the tower of the water-clock.
Here they would be having lunch. Ah Cum said that it was customary
to give