W. Somerset Maugham

“ The real you is the love that consumes you more hotly than ever the fever did. The only you is the you that loves me. The rest is only frills. It's a domino that you put on at a masked ball.
George. You don't know what you say. Frills? It's honour, and duty, and decency. It's everything that makes it possible for me to cling to the shadow of my self-respect.
Daisy. Oh, all that means nothing. You fool. You might as well try with your bare hands to stop the flow of the Yangtze. ”

“ Harry. What are they?
Knox. We don't much like their morals, but we can't stick their manners.
George. Somehow or other they seem to inherit all the bad qualities of the two races from which they spring and none of the good ones. I'm sure there are exceptions, but on the whole the Eurasian is vulgar and noisy. He can't tell the truth if he tries.
Knox. To do him justice, he seldom tries.
George. He's as vain as a peacock. He'll cringe when he's afraid of you and he'll bully when he's not. You can never rely on him. ”

“ Daisy. [Putting her arms round his neck.] Oh, Harry, I'll love you so much if you'll only do what I ask. You don't know me yet. Oh, Harry!
Harry. My darling, I love you with all my heart and soul, but when I've once made up my mind nothing on earth is going to make me change it. We can only be happy and natural if we go. You must submit to my judgment.
Daisy. How can you be so obstinate?
Harry. My dear, look at yourself in the glass now.
[She looks down on her Manchu dress. She understands what he means. She is a Chinese woman.
Daisy. [With a change of tone.] Amah, bring me a tea-gown. ”

“ Coolies, half naked, hurry by, bearing great bales on their yokes. They utter little sharp cries for people to get out of their way. Peking carts with their blue hoods rumble noisily along. Rickshaws pass rapidly in both directions, and the rickshaw boys shout for the crowd to make way. In the rickshaws are grave Chinese. Some are dressed in white ducks after the European fashion; in other rickshaws are Chinese women in long smocks and wide trousers or Manchu ladies, with their faces painted like masks, in embroidered silks. Women of various sorts stroll about the street or enter the shops. ”

“ As Harry goes out a crowd of people surge through the great open doorway of the courtyard. They are monks of the temple, attracted to the street by the quick rumour of accident, coolies, and the night watchman with his rattle. Some of them bear Chinese lanterns, some hurricane lamps. The crowd separates out as they approach the room and then it is seen that three men are bearing what seems to be the body of a man. ”

“ George makes a gesture of dismay. He is taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovers.
George. You don't know what sort of a man Harry is. He's not like the fellows you've been used to. He's never knocked around as most of us do. He's always been as straight as a die.
Daisy. I know.
George. Have mercy on him. Even if there were nothing else against you he's not the sort of chap for you to marry. He's awfully English.
Daisy. If he doesn't mind marrying a Eurasian I really don't see what business it is of yours. ”

“ Daisy. It's astonishing how easy it is to resist temptations that don't tempt you.
Lee Tai. Sneer. What do I care? I wait.... What have you to do with white men? You are not a white woman. What power has this blood of your father's when it is mingled with the tumultuous stream which you have inherited through your mother from innumerable generations? Our race is very pure and very strong. Strange nations have overrun us, but in a little while we have absorbed them so that no trace of a foreign people is left in us. ”

“ George. Harry and I have been pals all our lives. I brought him out to China and I got him his job. When he had cholera he would have died if I hadn't pulled him through.
Daisy. I know. And in return he worships the ground you tread on. I've never known one man think so much of another as he does of you.
George. All that's rot, of course. Sometimes I don't know how I'm going to live up to the good opinion Harry has of me. But when you've done so much for a pal as I have for him it gives you an awful sense of responsibility towards him. ”

“ Daisy. Won't you give up this idea of leaving Peking?
Harry. But, my darling, it's for your happiness I'm doing it.
Daisy. Don't you think that everyone is the best judge of his own happiness?
Harry. Not always.
Daisy. [Disengaging herself from his arms.] Ah, that's the English way. You want to make people happy in your way and not in theirs. You'll never be satisfied till the Chinese wear Norfolk jackets and eat roast beef and plum pudding. ”

“ Daisy. After you've smoked a pipe or two your mind grows extraordinarily clear. You have a strange facility of speech and yet no desire to speak. All the puzzles of this puzzling world grow plain to you. You are tranquil and free. Your soul is gently released from the bondage of your body, and it plays, happy and careless, like a child with flowers. ”

“ Why shouldn't a man marry a half-caste if he wants to?
Knox. It can't be very nice to have a wife whom even the missionary ladies turn up their noses at.
Harry. [With a shrug of the shoulders.] You wait till Freddy's number one in Hankow and can entertain. I bet the white ladies will be glad enough to know his missus then.
George. Yes, but that's just it. He'll never get a good job with a Eurasian wife.
Harry. He's in Jardine's, isn't he? Do you mean to say it's going to handicap a man in a shipping firm because he's married a woman who's partly Chinese? ”

“ George. And you, I think, are somewhat supercilious. Believe me, the time has passed when the mandarins of your country, in their impenetrable self-conceit, could put up a barrier against the advance of civilization. If you have any love for China you must see that her only chance to take her rightful place in the world is to accept honestly and sincerely the teaching of the West.
Lee Tai. And if in our hearts we despise and detest what you have to teach us? For what reason are you so confident that you are so superior to us that it behooves us to sit humbly at your feet? ”

“ Harry. Who's there? Open, I tell you! Open!
[Daisy puts rouge on her cheeks. She takes a black pencil and touches her eyebrows. She gives them a slight slant so that she looks on a sudden absolutely Chinese.
Daisy. Open!
[The Amah draws the bolt and Harry bursts in.
Harry. Daisy! [He comes forward impetuously and then on a sudden stops. He is taken aback. Something, he knows not what, comes over him and he feels helpless and strangely weak.] Daisy, what does it mean? These letters. [He takes them out of his pocket and thrusts them towards her. She takes no notice of him.] Daisy, speak to me. ”

“ Daisy. He is my husband.
Lee Tai. It is a year to-day since you were married. What has marriage done for you? You thought when you married a white man you'd become a white woman. Do you think they can look at you and forget? How many white women do you know? How many friends have you got? You're a prisoner. I'll take you to Singapore or Calcutta. Don't you want to amuse yourself? Do you want to go to Europe? I'll take you to Paris. I'll give you more money to spend in a week than your husband earns in a year.
Daisy. I'm very comfortable in Peking, thank you. ”

“ His embarrassment, the distraction of his tone, and the way the halting words fall unwillingly from his lips have betrayed the truth to Daisy. She does not speak, she does not stir, she looks at him with great shining eyes. ”

“ If they take to one another, you won't try to crab it, will you? I fancy Daisy wants a friend rather badly.
Knox. I shouldn't like it very much, you know. Would you much care for your sister to be very pally with a half-caste?
George. Daisy is one in a thousand. You can't think what she's done for me during my illness. My mother couldn't have taken more care of me.
Knox. They're often very good-hearted. But as a matter of fact nothing I can say will have the least effect on Sylvia. Girls have changed a lot since the war. If she wants to do a thing and she thinks it right, she'll do it. ”

“ Lee Tai. [With a smile.] China is a very old and a highly civilized country, Daisy. When anyone is in your way, it's not very difficult to get rid of him.
Daisy. [Scornfully.] And do you think I'd let poor Harry be murdered so that I might be free to listen to your generous proposals? You must think I'm a fool if you expect me to risk my neck for that.
Lee Tai. You don't take any risk, Daisy. You know nothing.
Amah. Lee Tai velly clever man, Daisy.
Daisy. I thought so once. Lee Tai, you're a damned fool. Get out.
Lee Tai. Freedom is a very good thing, Daisy. ”

“ China is like the Yangtze, which is fed by five hundred streams and yet remains unchanged, the river of golden sand, majestic, turbulent, indifferent, and everlasting. What power have you to swim against that mighty current? You can wear European clothes and eat European food, but in your heart you are a Chinawoman. ”

“ The Minister wired from Peking that I'd have to resign if I did. I hadn't a bob except my salary and they transferred me to Canton to get me away.
Harry. It's different for you. You're in the service and you may be Minister one of these days. I'm only a merchant.
George. Even for you there'll be difficulties, you know. Has it occurred to you that the white ladies won't be very nice?
Harry. I can do without their society.
George. You must know some people. It means you'll have to hobnob with Eurasian clerks and their wives. ”

“ Wu during the last few speeches has appeared with the tea, which he sets down on the table. On receiving Daisy's order he goes to the doorway and draws the bolt. He pulls back one heavy door while Knox pulls back the other. The empty street is seen. The music grows louder. Now the procession comes, gay, brilliant, and barbaric against the white wall of the street; first men on horseback, then Buddhist monks in gray, with their shaven heads; then the band, playing wild, discordant music; after them passes a long string of retainers in red, with strange shaped hats ”

“ A water-carrier passes along with a creaking barrow, slopping the water as he goes; an old blind woman, a masseuse, advances slowly, striking wooden clappers to proclaim her calling. A musician stands on the curb and plays a tuneless melody on a one-stringed fiddle. ”

“ There is a babel of sound caused by the talking of all these people, by the cries of coolies, the gong, the clappers, and the fiddle. From burning joss-sticks in the shops in front of the household god comes a savour of incense.
A couple of Mongols ride across on shaggy ponies; they wear high boots and Astrakhan caps. Then a string of camels sways slowly down the street. They carry great burdens of skins from the deserts of Mongolia. They are accompanied by wild looking fellows. Two stout Chinese gentlemen are giving their pet birds an airing ”

“ George. I suppose you know that I shall be quite ruined.
Daisy. You'll have to leave the service. Does that really matter to you very much?
George. It was my whole life.
Daisy. You'll get a job in the post office. With your knowledge of the language they'll simply jump at you. It's a Chinese service. It has nothing to do with Europeans.
George. Do you think the postmaster in a small Chinese city is a very lucrative position?
Daisy. What does money matter? If I'd wanted money I could have got all I wanted from Lee Tai. We can do with very little. You don't know what a clever housekeeper I am. ”

“ Sen Shi was found by the watchman an hour later with a dagger in his heart. Who killed cock-robin?
Amah. Hi, hi. Sen Shi velly silly man.
Lee Tai. His brother knew that. They had grown up together. If I heard cries for help outside my house late in the night, I should ask myself who had a grudge against me, and I should make sure the door was bolted. But white men are very brave. White men don't know the Chinese customs. Would you be very sorry if an accident happened to your excellent husband?
Daisy. I wonder what you take me for?
Lee Tai. Why do you pretend to me, Daisy? ”

“ Do you not know that we have a genius for mechanics? Do you not know that there are in this country four hundred millions of the most practical and industrious people in the world? Do you think it will take us long to learn? ”

“ Old amah got velly good eyes in her head.
Daisy. [As though talking to herself.] I've got a husband who adores me and a nice house to live in. I've got a position and as much money as I want. I'm safe. I'm respectable. I ought to be happy.
Amah. I say, Harry no good, what for you wanchee marry? You say, I wanchee marry, I wanchee marry? Well, you married. What you want now?
Daisy. They say life is short. Good God, how long the days are.
Amah. You want pony—Harry give you pony. You want jade ring—Harry give you jade ring. You want sable coat—Harry give you sable coat. Why you not happy? ”

“ Daisy. [Smiling.] That was a slight exaggeration.
George. You put it very mildly.
Daisy. You said you wouldn't come to the temple. It meant finding some place where we could meet or never seeing you at all.
George. [Sombrely.] We began with deceit and with deceit we've continued.
Daisy. [Tenderly.] There's no deceit in my love, George. After all, our love is the only thing that matters.
George. [With a certain awkwardness.] I'm afraid I've kept you waiting. André Leroux came to see me just as I was leaving the Legation.
Daisy. [Remembering.] I know. Mrs. Stopfort's young man. ”

“ Amah. [Pushing away Daisy's hands.] Oh!
Daisy. He loves me. That's the only thing that matters. All the rest....
Amah. Harry wanchee you go Chung-king. Missionary ladies like see you again, Daisy. Perhaps they ask you how you like living along Lee Tai Cheng. Perhaps somebody tell Harry.
Daisy. The fool. Of all the places in China he must hit upon Chung-king.
Amah. You know Harry. If he say go Chung-king, he go. You cly, he velly solly, he all same go.
Daisy. Oh, I know his obstinacy. When he's once made up his mind— [Contemptuously.] —he prides himself on his firmness. Oh, what shall I do? ”