Achmed Abdullah

“ Presently you will follow your whim or, perhaps, your conviction and play—ah—Fate to a very great issue.” He turned to d’Acosta. “My friend,” he continued, “it is strange indeed how back of everything there is the soft hand of woman, how the fate of the many millions hangs always and always from a woman’s jeweled earrings—in China—in Europe—belike in the moon. A woman, wilful and stubborn as only a woman can be—or a cat! What does it say in the classics? ‘Po-nien-jou-chi i-tien-jou-ki’—‘Stubborn as a rock, hard as ancient lacquer.’”
Again he addressed Marie. ”

“ A tiny vase no bigger than a thumb-nail, with two gold dragons snarling over its lizard-green surface, an orifice belled like the cup of a flower, and painted on the inside with infinitesimal figures. ”

“ To-day he was a major-general in the Chinese Republican army, stationed in Canton, with headquarters not for from the Nan-Hai prison and in command over the Southern Shenchi Ying, or “Augustly Divine Mechanism Army,” as the Chinese call their foreign-drilled field forces. He seldom set foot in the Shameen, the European quarter, avoided all intercourse with Europeans and Americans as much as he could, and lived in the manner of a mandarin—and he had asked Marie to dine with him to-morrow night! ”

“ Perhaps”—he lowered his voice—“you even take an interest in such rubbish as a brittle bit of Tchou-fou-yao porcelain.”
Marie could not restrain herself any longer. With a choked mumble of apology, she rose and almost ran from the dining room.
Her first impulse was to go to her room. But she reflected that perhaps one or both of the men would follow her. Finally she thought of an up-stairs parlor, reserved for the use of women guests. She went to it quickly. It was empty except for a soft-footed Mongol maid. ”