Mr. Spring Fragrance was walking to business with Mr. Chin Yuen. As they
walked they talked.
“Yes,” said Mr. Chin Yuen, “the old order is passing away, and the new
order is taking its place, even with us who are Chinese. I have finally
consented to give my daughter in marriage to young Kai Tzu.”
Mr. Spring Fragrance expressed surprise. He had understood that the
marriage between his neighbor’s daughter and the San Francisco
school-teacher’s son was all arranged.
“So ’twas,” answered Mr. Chin Yuen; “but, it seems the young renegade,
without consultation or advice, has placed his affections upon some
untrustworthy female, and is so under her influence that he refuses to
fulfil his parents’ promise to me for him.”
“So!” said Mr. Spring Fragrance. The shadow on his brow deepened.
“But,” said Mr. Chin Yuen, with affable resignation, “it is all ordained
by Heaven. Our daughter, as the wife of Kai Tzu, for whom she has long
had a loving feeling, will not now be compelled to dwell with a
mother-in-law and where her own mother is not. For that, we are
thankful, as she is our only one and the conditions of life in this
Western country are not as in China. Moreover, Kai Tzu, though not so
much of a scholar as the teacher’s son, has a keen eye for business and
that, in America, is certainly much more desirable than scholarship.
What do you think?”
“Eh! What!” exclaimed Mr. Spring Fragrance. The latter part of his
companion’s remarks had been lost upon him.
That day the shadow which had been following Mr. Spring Fragrance ever
since he had heard his wife quote, “’Tis better to have loved,” etc.,
became so heavy and deep that he quite lost himself within it.
At home in the evening he fed the cat, the bird, and the flowers. Then,
seating himself in a carved black chair—a present from his wife on his
last birthday—he took out his pipe and smoked. The cat jumped into his
lap. He stroked it softly and tenderly. It had been much fondled by Mrs.
Spring Fragrance, and Mr. Spring Fragrance was under the impression that
it missed her. “Poor thing!” said he. “I suppose you want her back!”
When he arose to go to bed he placed the animal carefully on the floor,
and thus apostrophized it:
“O Wise and Silent One, your mistress returns to you, but her heart she
leaves behind her, with the Tommies in San Francisco.”
The Wise and Silent One made no reply. He was not a jealous cat.
Mr. Spring Fragrance slept not that night; the next morning he ate not.
Three days and three nights without sleep and food went by.
There was a springlike freshness in the air on the day that Mrs. Spring
Fragrance came home. The skies overhead were as blue as Puget Sound
stretching its gleaming length toward the mighty Pacific, and all the
beautiful green world seemed to be throbbing with springing life.
Mrs. Spring Fragrance was never so radiant.
“Oh,” she cried light-heartedly, “is it not lovely to see the sun
shining so clear, and everything so bright to welcome me?”
Mr. Spring Fragrance made no response. It was the morning after the
fourth sleepless night.
Mrs. Spring Fragrance noticed his silence, also his grave face.
“Everything—everyone is glad to see me but you,” she declared, half
seriously, half jestingly.
Mr. Spring Fragrance set down her valise. They had just entered the
house.
“If my wife is glad to see me,” he quietly replied, “I also am glad to
see her!”
Summoning their servant boy, he bade him look after Mrs. Spring
Fragrance’s comfort.
“I must be at the store in half an hour,” said he, looking at his watch.
“There is some very important business requiring attention.”
“What is the business?” inquired Mrs. Spring Fragrance, her lip
quivering with disappointment.
“I cannot just explain to you,” answered her husband.
Mrs. Spring Fragrance looked up into his face with honest and earnest
eyes. There was something in his manner, in the tone of her husband’s
voice, which touched her.
“Yen,” said she, “you do not look well. You are not well. What is it?”
Something arose in Mr. Spring Fragrance’s throat which prevented him
from replying.
“O darling one! O sweetest one!” cried a girl’s joyous voice. Laura Chin
Yuen ran into the room and threw her arms around Mrs. Spring Fragrance’s
neck.
“I spied you from the window,” said Laura, “and I couldn’t rest until I
told you. We are to be married next week, Kai Tzu and I. And all through
you, all through you—the sweetest jade jewel in the world!”
Mr. Spring Fragrance passed out of the room.
“So the son of the Government teacher and little Happy Love are already
married,” Laura went on, relieving Mrs. Spring Fragrance of her cloak,
her hat, and her folding fan. Mr. Spring Fragrance paused upon the
doorstep.
“Sit down, Little Sister, and I will tell you all about it,” said Mrs.
Spring Fragrance, forgetting her husband for a moment.
When Laura Chin Yuen had danced away, Mr. Spring Fragrance came in and
hung up his hat.
“You got back very soon,” said Mrs. Spring Fragrance, covertly wiping
away the tears which had begun to fall as soon as she thought herself
alone.
“I did not go,” answered Mr. Spring Fragrance. “I have been listening to
you and Laura.”
“But if the business is very important, do not you think you should
attend to it?” anxiously queried Mrs. Spring Fragrance.
“It is not important to me now,” returned Mr. Spring Fragrance. “I would
prefer to hear again about Ah Oi and Man You and Laura and Kai Tzu.”
“How lovely of you to say that!” exclaimed Mrs. Spring Fragrance, who
was easily made happy. And she began to chat away to her husband in the
friendliest and wifeliest fashion possible. When she had finished she
asked him if he were not glad to hear that those who loved as did the
young lovers whose secrets she had been keeping, were to be united; and
he replied that indeed he was; that he would like every man to be as
happy with a wife as he himself had ever been and ever would be.
“You did not always talk like that,” said Mrs. Spring Fragrance slyly.
“You must have been reading my American poetry books!”
“American poetry!” ejaculated Mr. Spring Fragrance almost fiercely,
“American poetry is detestable, _abhorrable_!”
“Why! why!” exclaimed Mrs. Spring Fragrance, more and more surprised.
But the only explanation which Mr. Spring Fragrance vouchsafed was a
jadestone pendant.