Chapter III: Part 3

SYLVIA. I'm twenty-two.

AMAH. How many children you got?

SYLVIA. I'm not married.

AMAH. What for you no married if you twenty-two?

SYLVIA. It does need an explanation, doesn't it? The truth is that nobody's asked me.

KNOX. What a lie!

AMAH. You come China catchee husband?

SYLVIA. Certainly not.

AMAH. You Christian?

SYLVIA. Not a very good one, I'm afraid.

AMAH. Who baptized you?

SYLVIA. Well, you know, it's an awfully long time ago. I forget.

KNOX. She's like me, amah, she's a Presbyterian.

AMAH. You go to hell then. Only Seventh Day Adventists no go to hell.

SYLVIA. It'll be rather crowded then, I'm afraid.

AMAH. You only baptized once?

SYLVIA. So far as I know.

AMAH. I baptized one, two, three, four, five times. I velly Christian woman.

KNOX. I say, old man, I don't want to dash your fond hopes, but in point of fact we didn't come here to see you.

GEORGE. Why not? Surely Miss Knox must want to see the principal sights of Peking.

KNOX. The man is not a raving lunatic, Sylvia. His only delusion is that he's a humourist ... Sylvia thought she'd like to call on Mrs. Harry.

GEORGE. I'm sure Daisy will be very glad. Amah, go and tell Missy that there's a lady.

AMAH. Can do.

[_Exit._

KNOX. I say, have they caught any of those blighters who tried to kill you?

GEORGE. No, not a chance. They weren't after me, you know; they were after Harry.

KNOX. Is there anyone who has a grudge against him?

GEORGE. I don't think so. He doesn't seem very keen on discussing the incident.

[DAISY _comes in_.

KNOX. Here she is. I've brought my sister to see you, Mrs. Harry.

DAISY. [_Shaking hands._] How do you do?

SYLVIA. What a wonderful place you live in!

DAISY. It's rather attractive, isn't it? You must see the temple before you go.

SYLVIA. I'd love to.

DAISY. Do sit down. [_To_ KNOX.] What do you think of my patient?

KNOX. I think he's a fraud. I never saw anyone look so robust.

DAISY. [_Delighted._] He's made a wonderful recovery.

GEORGE. Thanks to you, Daisy. You can't think how she nursed me.

KNOX. It was rather a narrow escape, wasn't it?

DAISY. For two days we thought he might die at any minute. It was--it was rather dreadful.

GEORGE. And do you know, all that time she never left me a minute. [_To_ DAISY.] I don't know how I can ever thank you.

DAISY. Oh, well, Harry had his work. I didn't think he ought to be robbed of his night's rest for a worthless creature like you, and I hated the idea of a paid nurse looking after you.

SYLVIA. You must have been worn out at the end of it.

DAISY. No, I'm as strong as a horse. And it was such a relief to me when the doctor said he was out of danger, I forgot I was tired.

KNOX. I don't know why you bothered about him. There are such a lot of fellows who want his job and they all know they could do it much better than he can.

GEORGE. Everyone's been so extraordinarily good to me. I had no idea there was so much kindness in the world.

DAISY. [_To_ SYLVIA, _very pleasantly_.] Will you come and look at the temple now while they're bringing tea?

SYLVIA. Yes, I'd like to very much.

DAISY. I think you'll enjoy your tea more if you feel you've done the sight.

SYLVIA. It's all so new to me. Everything interests me. I've fallen passionately in love with Peking.

[_They wander off, talking gaily._

GEORGE. Harold, you're a very nice boy.

KNOX. That's what the girls tell me. But I don't know why you should.

GEORGE. I think it was rather sporting of you to bring your sister to see Daisy.

KNOX. I don't deserve any credit for that. She insisted on coming.

GEORGE. Oh?

KNOX. She met Harry at the club and took rather a fancy to him. When I told her Daisy was a half-caste and people didn't bother much about her she got right up on her hind legs. I told her she'd only just come out to China and didn't know what she was talking about and then she gave me what she called a bit of her mind. I was obliged to remark that if that was a bit I didn't much care about knowing the rest.

GEORGE. It sounds as though you'd had a little tiff.

KNOX. She said she had no patience with the airs people gave themselves in the East. A Eurasian was just as good as anybody else. And when I happened to say I was coming here to-day to see how you were she said she'd come too.

GEORGE. It's very kind of her. Daisy leads a dreadfully lonely life. It would mean so much to her if she knew one or two white women. 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. And if I try to interfere she's quite capable of telling me to go to the devil.

GEORGE. She seems to be a young woman of some character.

KNOX. Perhaps because she's had rather a rough time. The fellow she was engaged to was killed in the war and she was awfully cut up. She drove an ambulance for the last two years and then she went up to Girton. After that my father thought she'd better come out here for a bit.

GEORGE. She ought to like it.

KNOX. If she doesn't put up people's backs too much. She can't stand anything like injustice or cruelty. If she thinks people are unkind to Daisy or sniffy about her, she'll stick to her like a leech. However, I daresay she'll get married.

GEORGE. [_Smiling._] That'll learn her.

KNOX. Why don't you marry her? It's about time you settled down.

GEORGE. [_With a chuckle._] You fool.

KNOX. Why? You're by way of being rather eligible, aren't you?

GEORGE. I don't know why you want to get rid of her. She seems a very nice sister.

KNOX. Of course I love having her with me, but she does cramp my style a bit. And she ought to marry. She'd make you a first-rate wife.

GEORGE. Much too good for the likes of me.

KNOX. Of course she's a bit independent, but one has to put up with that in girls nowadays. And she's as good as gold.

GEORGE. One can see that at a mile, my son.

KNOX. I say, who was Rathbone, Daisy's first husband, do you know?

GEORGE. [_His face a blank._] Harry told me he was an American. He said he was in business in the F. M. S.

KNOX. That's what Harry told me. I met a fellow the other day who lives in Singapore who told me he'd never heard of Rathbone.

GEORGE. [_Chaffing him._] Perhaps he didn't move in the exalted circles that a friend of yours would naturally move in.

KNOX. I suppose there was a Mr. Rathbone?

[_There is a distant sound in the street of Chinese instruments
being played._

GEORGE. Hulloa, there's the procession coming along.

KNOX. What procession?

GEORGE. It's a Manchu wedding. The amah was talking about it this morning.

KNOX. I must call Sylvia. She'd love to see it. Sylvia.

[DAISY _and_ SYLVIA _come out of the house just as he calls_.

SYLVIA. Don't shout, Harold.

KNOX. Come along and have your education improved. A Manchu wedding is just going to pass by....

SYLVIA. Oh, good, let's go out into the street!

DAISY. You can see it just as well from here. I'll have the doors opened. Boy, open the gate.

KNOX. Yes, that's the ticket. We shall see it better from here.

[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; then
come retainers bearing in open palanquins great masses of cardboard
fruits and all manner of foodstuffs, silver vessels and gold; these
are followed by two or three youths on horseback, gorgeously
dressed, and these again by the palanquin, carved and richly
painted and gilt, of the bride. Then pass more priests and another
band and finally a last string of retainers in red. When the last
one has disappeared a beggar shows himself at the open doorway. He
is excessively thin, and he has a bush of long, bristly hair; he is
clothed in pale rags, torn and patched; his legs and feet are bare.
He puts out a bony hand and breaks into a long, high-pitched
whine_.

KNOX. Oh, Lord, get out!

DAISY. Oh, no, please, Harold, give him a copper or two.

GEORGE. Daisy never lets a beggar go away without something.

DAISY. It's not because I'm charitable. I'm afraid they'll bring me bad luck.

KNOX. [_Taking a coin from his pocket._] Here you are, Clarence. Now buzz off.

[_The beggar takes his dole and saunters away._ WU _closes the
doors_.

SYLVIA. [_Enthusiastically._] I _am_ glad I saw that.

DAISY. You'll get very tired of that sort of thing before you've been here long. Now let's have tea.

SYLVIA. Oh, I don't think we'll stay, thank you very much. We have another call to make.

DAISY. How tiresome of you. Harry ought to be back in a few minutes. He'll be disappointed not to have seen you.

SYLVIA. I promised to go and see Mrs. Stopfort. Do you know her?

DAISY. I know who you mean.

SYLVIA. I think people are being absolutely beastly to her. It simply makes my blood boil.

DAISY. Oh, how?

SYLVIA. Well, you know that her husband's a drunken brute who's treated her abominably for years. At last she fell in love with a man and now her husband is going to divorce her. It's monstrous that he should be able to.

DAISY. Are the ladies of Peking giving her the cold shoulder?

KNOX. The cold _shoulder_ hardly describes it. The frozen silverside.

GEORGE. I think she's well rid of Reggie Stopfort at any price, but I'm sorry the other party is Andre Leroux.

SYLVIA. Why? She introduced me to him. I thought he was a very nice fellow.

GEORGE. Well, you see, if he'd been English or American, he would have married her as a matter of course.

SYLVIA. So I should hope.

DAISY. Because she was divorced on his account, you mean?

GEORGE. Yes. But the French haven't our feeling on that matter. I'm not quite sure if Andre will be willing to marry her.

SYLVIA. Oh, that would be dreadful! Under those circumstances the man must marry the woman. He simply must.

GEORGE. Of course.

KNOX. Come along, Sylvia. We won't discuss women's rights now.

SYLVIA. [_Giving_ DAISY _her hand very cordially._] And if there's anything I hate it's people who say they're going and then don't go. Good-bye, Mrs. Anderson.

DAISY. It's been very nice to see you.

SYLVIA. I do hope you'll come and see me soon. I'm so very much alone you'd be doing me a charity if you'd look me up. We might do the curio shops together.

DAISY. That would be great fun.

SYLVIA. Good-bye, Mr. Conway. I'm glad to see you so well.

GEORGE. Thank you very much, good-bye.

[KNOX _and_ SYLVIA _go out._ DAISY _has walked with them towards
the doorway and now returns to_ GEORGE.

GEORGE. What a very nice girl, Daisy.

DAISY. She seems to make a specialty of speckled peaches. First me and then Mrs. Stopfort.

GEORGE. I was hoping you'd like her.

DAISY. It's hardly probable. She's everything that I'm not. She has everything that I haven't. No, I don't like her. But I'd give anything in the world to be her.

GEORGE. [_Smiling._] I don't think you need envy her.

DAISY. Don't you think she's pretty?

GEORGE. Yes, very. But you're so much more than pretty. I expect you have more brains in your little finger than she has in her whole body.

DAISY. [_Gravely._] She has something that I haven't got, George, and I'd give my soul to have.

GEORGE. [_Embarrassed._] I don't know what you mean. [_Changing the conversation abruptly._] Daisy, now that I'm going away....

DAISY. [_Interrupting._] Are you really going to-morrow?

GEORGE. [_Breezily._] I'm quite well. I'm ashamed to have stayed so long.

DAISY. I don't look forward very much to the long, empty days when you're no longer here.

GEORGE. [_Seriously._] I must go, Daisy. I really must.

DAISY. [_After a moment's pause._] What were you going to say to me? Don't thank me for anything I may have done. It's given me a happiness I never knew before.

GEORGE. Except for you I should have died. And when I think of the past I am ashamed.

DAISY. What does the past matter? The past is dead and gone.

GEORGE. And I'm ashamed when I think how patient you were when I was irritable, how kind and thoughtful. I hardly knew I wanted a thing before you gave it to me. Sometimes when I felt I couldn't breathe, the tenderness of your hand on my forehead--oh, it was like a dip in a highland stream on a summer day. I think I never knew that there was in you the most precious thing that anyone can have, goodness. Oh, Daisy, it makes me feel so humble.

DAISY. Goodness? [_With the shadow of a laugh._] Oh, George.

GEORGE. It's because Harry is better and simpler than I am that he was able to see it in you. He felt it in you always and he was right.

[_The_ AMAH _comes in_.

DAISY. [_Sharply._] What d'you want?

[_The_ AMAH _crosses from one to the other and a thin smile crosses
her eyes_.

AMAH. Master telephone, Daisy.

DAISY. Why didn't you take the message?

[_She is about to go into the house._

AMAH. He have go now. He say very much hurry. I say no can findee you. I think you go out.

DAISY. Why did you say that?

AMAH. I think more better, maybe.

GEORGE. [_Smiling._] That's right, amah. Never tell the truth when a lie will do as well.

DAISY. Well, what was the message?

AMAH. Master say he must to go Tientsin. Very important business. No come back to-night. Come back first train to-morrow.

DAISY. Very well. Tell the boy that we shall be only two to dinner.

AMAH. I go talkee he.

[_Exit._

GEORGE. [_Urbanely._] I say, I don't want to be an awful trouble to you. I think I'd better go back to my own place to-night.

DAISY. [_Looking at him._] Why should you do that?

GEORGE. I was going to-morrow anyway.

DAISY. Do you think my reputation is such a sensitive flower?

GEORGE. [_Lightly._] Of course not. But people aren't very charitable. It seems rather funny I should stay here when Harry's away.

DAISY. What do you suppose I care if people gossip?

GEORGE. I care for you.

DAISY. [_With a smile, almost archly._] It's not very flattering to me that you should insist on going the moment Harry does. Do I bore you so much as all that?

GEORGE. [_With a chuckle._] How can you talk such nonsense? I haven't wanted to get well too quickly. I've so enjoyed sitting quietly here while you read or sewed. I've got so much in the habit of seeing you about me that if I don't go at once I shall never be able to bring myself to go at all.

DAISY. Since that horrible accident I've been rather nervous at the thought of sleeping here by myself. I'm terrified at the thought of being left alone to-night.

GEORGE. Come in with me, then. The Knoxes will be delighted to put you up for the night.

DAISY. [_With a sudden change of manner._] I don't want you to go, George. I want you to stay.

GEORGE. [_As serious as she is._] Daisy, don't be too hard on me. You don't know. You don't know. [_With an effort he regains his self-control and returns to his easy, chaffing tone._] Don't forget it's not only a wound in the lung that I've been suffering from. While you and the doctor between you have been patching that up, I've been busy sticking together the pieces of a broken heart. It's nicely set now, no one could tell that there'd ever been anything wrong with it, but I don't think it would be very wise to give it a sudden jolt or jerk.

DAISY. [_In a low quivering voice._] Why do you say things like that? What is the good of making pretences?

GEORGE. [_Determined to keep the note of lightness._] It was very silly of me to bother you with my little troubles. It was very hot. I was overworked and nervous at the time or I shouldn't have made so much of it. I'm sure that you'll be as pleased as I am to know that I'm making a very good recovery, thank you.

DAISY. [_As though asking a casual question._] You don't care for me any more?

GEORGE. I have the greatest affection for you. I admire you and of course I'm grateful to you. But if I thought I was in love with you I was mistaken.

DAISY. Do you know why I wouldn't have a professional nurse and when you were unconscious for two days refused to leave you for a minute? Do you know why, afterwards, at night when you grew delirious I wouldn't let Harry watch you? I said it would interfere with his work. I dared not leave you for a single moment. And it was your secret and mine. I wouldn't let anybody in the world share it with me. Do you know what you said in your delirium?

GEORGE. [_Disturbed._] I expect I talked an awful lot of rot. People always do, I believe.

DAISY. [_Passionately._] You used to call me, "Daisy, Daisy," as though your heart was breaking. And when I leaned over you and said: "I'm here," you would take my face in your hands so that I could hardly believe you weren't conscious. And you said: "I love you."

GEORGE. Oh, God!

DAISY. And sometimes I didn't know how to calm you. You were frantic because you thought they were taking me away from you. "I can't bear it," you said, "I shall die." I had to put my hands over your mouth so that no one should hear.

GEORGE. I didn't know what I was saying. I wasn't myself. It was just the madness of the fever.

DAISY. And sometimes you were so exquisitely tender. Your voice was soft and caressing. And you called me by sweet names so that the tears ran down my cheeks. You thought you held me in your arms and you pressed me to your heart. You were happy then; you were so happy that I was afraid you'd die of it. I know what love is and you love me.

GEORGE. For God's sake, stop. Why do you torture me?

DAISY. And then you were madly jealous. You hated Harry. I think you could have killed him.

GEORGE. That's not true. That's infamous. Never. Never.

DAISY. Oh, you can say that with your lips! Sometimes you thought he put his arms round me and kissed me and you sobbed aloud. Oh, it was so painful. I forgot that you were unconscious and I took your hands and said: "He's not here. You and I are alone, alone, alone." And sometimes I think you understood. You fell back. And a look of peace came on your face as if you were in heaven and you said--do you know what you said? You said: "Beloved, beloved, beloved."

[_Her voice breaks and the tears course down her cheeks._ GEORGE
_is shattered by what she has told him_.

GEORGE. I suppose there are few of us that wouldn't turn away from ourselves in horror if the innermost thoughts of our heart, the thoughts we're only conscious of to hate, were laid bare. But that shameful thing that showed itself in me isn't me. I disown it....

DAISY. I thought you had more courage. I thought you had more sense. Do you call that you, a few conventional prejudices? 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.

GEORGE. If I perish I perish. Oh, of course I love you. All night I'm tortured with love and tortured with jealousy, but the day does come at last and then I can get hold of myself again. My love is some horrible thing gnawing at my heart-strings. I hate it and despise it. But I can fight it, fight it all the time. Oh, I've been here too long. I ought to have got back to work long ago. Work is my only chance. Daisy, I beseech you to let me go.

DAISY. How can I let you go? I love you.

GEORGE. [_Thunderstruck._] You? [_Impatiently, with a shrug of the shoulders._] Oh, you're talking nonsense.

DAISY. Why do you suppose I've said all these things? Do you think a woman cares twopence for a man's love when she doesn't love him?

GEORGE. Oh, it's impossible. You don't know what you're saying. I know how good and kind you are. You've been touched by my love. You mistake pity for love.

DAISY. I'm not good and I'm not kind. There's no room in my soul for pity. In my soul there's only a raging hunger. If I know what you feel it's because I feel it too. I love you, I love you, I love you.

GEORGE. And Harry?

DAISY. What do I care about Harry? I hate him because he's stood between me and you.

GEORGE. He is your husband. He is my friend.

DAISY. He doesn't exist. I've loved you always from the first day I saw you. The others were nothing to me, Lee Tai and Harry and the rest. I've loved you always. I've never loved anyone but you. All these years I've kept the letters you wrote to me. I've read them till I know every word by heart. They're all blurred and smudged with the tears I've wept over them. They were all I had. Do you think I'm going to let you go now? All my pain, all my anguish, are nothing any more. I love you and you love me.

GEORGE. Oh, don't, don't!

DAISY. You can't leave me now. If you leave me I shall kill myself.

GEORGE. I must go away. I must never see you again. Whatever happens we must never meet.

DAISY. [_Exasperated and impatient._] That's impossible. What will you say to Harry?

GEORGE. If need be I'll tell him the truth.

DAISY. What difference will that make? Will you love me any the less? Yes, tell him. Tell him that I love you and you only and that I belong to you and to you only.

GEORGE. Oh, Daisy, for God's sake try and control yourself. We must do our duty, we must, we must.

DAISY. I know no duty. I only know love. There's no room in my soul for anything else. You say that love is like a wild beast gnawing at your entrails. My love is a liberator. It's freed me from a hateful past. It's freed me from Harry. There's nothing in the world now but you and me and the love that joins us. I want you, I want you.

GEORGE. Don't, don't! Oh, this is madness! There's only one thing to be done. God, give me strength. Daisy, you know I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul. But it's good-bye. I'll never see you again. Never. Never. So help me God.

DAISY. How can you be so cruel? You're heartless. I've wanted you all these years. I've hungered for you. You don't know what my humiliation has been. Pity me because I loved you. If you leave me now I shall die. You open the doors of heaven to me and then you slam them in my face. Haven't you made me unhappy enough? You'd have done better to kill me ten years ago. You trampled me in the mud and then you left me. Oh, what shall I do? [_She sinks down to the ground, weeping as though her heart would break._ GEORGE _looks at her for a minute, his face distorted with agony; he clenches his hands in the violence of his effort to control himself. He takes his hat and walks slowly towards the gate. He withdraws the bolt that holds it. When_ DAISY _hears the sound of this she starts to her feet and staggers towards him_.] George. No, no. Not yet.

[_She staggers and with a cry falls headlong. She has fainted._

GEORGE. [_Rushing towards her._] Daisy. Daisy. [_He kneels down and takes her head in his hands. He is fearfully agitated._] Oh, my darling, what is it? Oh, my God! Daisy! Speak to me. [_Calling._] Amah, amah! [DAISY _slowly opens her eyes_.] Oh, my beloved! I thought you were dead.

DAISY. Lift me up.

GEORGE. You can't stand.

[_He raises her to her feet so that when she is erect she is in his
arms. She puts her arms round his neck._

DAISY. Don't leave me.

GEORGE. My precious. My beloved.

[_She turns her face to him, offering her lips, and he bends his
head and kisses her. She closes her eyes in ecstasy._

DAISY. Take me in. I feel so ill.

GEORGE. I'll carry you.

[_He lifts her up and carries her into the house. From the opposite
side the_ AMAH _appears. She goes to the gateway and slips the bolt
forward into position. Then she comes to the tea-table, sits down
and takes a scone_.

AMAH. Hi, hi.

[_She bites the scone and chews placidly. On her face is a smirk of
irony._

END OF SCENE V

SCENE VI

_A small room in a Chinese house in Peking._

_The walls are whitewashed, but the whitewash is not a little
stained. Three or four scrolls hang on them, written over in large
characters with inscriptions. On the floor is matting. The only
furniture consists of a table, with a couple of chairs, a wooden
pallet covered with matting, with cushions at one end of it, and a
Korean chest heavily ornamented with brass. At the back are two
windows, elaborately latticed and covered with rice paper, and a
lightly carved door._

DAISY _is seated in one of the chairs. She has taken her pocket
mirror out of her bag and is looking at herself. She is gay and
happy. The_ AMAH _comes in. She carries a long-necked vase in which
are a couple of carnations_.

AMAH. I bring you flowers make room look pletty.

DAISY. Oh, you nice old thing! Put them on the table.

AMAH. You look at yourself in looking-glass?

DAISY. I'm looking young. It suits me to be happy.

AMAH. You very pletty girl. I very pletty girl long time ago. You look alla same me some day.

DAISY. [_Amused._] Heaven forbid.

AMAH. You velly good temper to-day, Daisy. You glad because George come.

DAISY. I didn't see him yesterday.

AMAH. He keep you waiting.

DAISY. The wretch. He always keeps me waiting. But what do I care as long as he comes? We shall have three hours. Perhaps he'll dine here. If he says he can, give him what he likes to eat. No one can make such delicious things as you can if you want to.

AMAH. You try flatter me.

DAISY. I don't. You know very well you're the best cook in China.

AMAH. [_Tickled._] Oh, Daisy! I know you more better than you think.

DAISY. You're a wicked old woman. [_She gives her a kiss on both cheeks._] What are they making such a row about next door?

AMAH. Coolie, he got killed this morning. He have two small children. Their mother, she die long time ago.

DAISY. How dreadful! Poor little things.

AMAH. You like see them. They here.

[_She goes to the door and beckons. A little, old, shabby Chinaman
comes in with two tiny children, a boy and a girl, one holding on
to each hand. They are very solemn and shy and silent._

DAISY. Oh, what lambs!

AMAH. They no got money. This old man he say he take them and he bring them up. But he only coolie. He no got much money himself.

DAISY. Is he related to them?

AMAH. No, him just velly good man. He no can do velly much. He just do what he can. The neighbours, they help little.

DAISY. But I'll help too. Have you got any money on you?

AMAH. I got two, three dollars.

DAISY. What's the good of that? Let him have this.

[_She has a chain of gold beads round her neck. She takes it off
and puts it in the old man's hands._

AMAH. That chain very ispensive, Daisy.

DAISY. What do I care? Let him sell it for what it'll fetch. It'll bring me luck. [_To the old man._] You sabe?

[_He nods, smiling._

AMAH. I think he understand all right.

DAISY. [_Looking at the children._] Aren't they sweet? And so solemn. [_To the_ AMAH.] You go chop-chop to the toy shop opposite and buy them some toys.

AMAH. Can do.

[_She goes out._ DAISY _takes the children and sets them up on the
table_.

DAISY. [_Charmingly._] Now you come and talk to me. Sit very still now or you'll fall off. [_To the little boy._] I wonder how old you are. [_To the old man._] Wu? Liu?

OLD MAN. Liu.

DAISY. [_To the little boy._] Six years old. Good gracious, you're quite a man. If I had a little boy he'd be older than you now. If I had a little boy I'd dress him in such smart things. And I'd bath him myself. I wouldn't let any horrid old amah bath him. And I wouldn't stuff him up with sweets like the Chinese do; I'd give him one piece of chocolate when he was a good boy. Gracious me, I've got some chocolates here. Wait there. Sit quite still. [_She goes over to the shelf on which is a bag of chocolates._] There's one for you and one for you and (_to the old man_) one for you. And here's one for me.

[_The children and the Chinaman eat the chocolates solemnly. The
AMAH returns with a doll and a child's Peking cart_.

AMAH. Have catchee toys.

DAISY. Look what kind old amah has brought you. [_She lifts the children off the table and gives the doll to the little girl and the cart to the boy._] Here's a beautiful doll for you and here's a real cart for you. [_She sits down on the floor._] Look, the wheels go round and everything.

AMAH. Have got more presents.

[_She takes out of her sleeve little bladders with mouthpiece
attached so that they can be blown up._

DAISY. What on earth is this? Oh, I love them! We must all have one. [_She distributes them and they all blow them up. There it the sound of scratching at the door_.] Who's that, I wonder?

AMAH. If you say come in, perhaps you see.

DAISY. Open the door, you old silly. [_She begins to blow up the balloon again. The_ AMAH _goes to the door and opens it_. LEE TAI _steps in_.] Lee Tai. Send these away. [_The_ AMAH _makes a sign to the old Chinaman, he gives each child a hand and with their presents they go out. The_ AMAH _slips out after them_.] I thought you were dead.

LEE TAI. I'm very much alive, thank you.

DAISY. Ah, well, we'll hope for the best.

LEE TAI. I trust you're not displeased to see me.

DAISY. [_Gaily._] If you'd come yesterday I should certainly have smacked your face, but to-day I'm in such a good humour that even the sight of you is tolerable.

LEE TAI. You weren't here yesterday.

[_The_ AMAH _comes in carrying on a little wooden tray, two Chinese
bowls and a tea-pot_.

DAISY. My dear Mamma seems to think you've come to pay me a visit. You mustn't let me keep you too long.

LEE TAI. You are expecting someone? I know.

[_The_ AMAH _goes out_.

DAISY. [_Chaffing him._] I always said you had a brain.

LEE TAI. No better a one than yours, Daisy. It was a clever trick when you got me to try to put your husband out of the way so that you should be free for George Conway.

DAISY. It was nothing to do with me. I told you I'd have nothing to do with it. You made a hash of it. One can forgive the good for being stupid, but when rascals are fools there's no excuse.

LEE TAI. The best laid schemes of mice and men, as my favourite poet Robert Burns so elegantly puts it, gang aft agley.

DAISY. I don't care a damn about your favourite poet. What have you come here for to-day?

LEE TAI. As it turns out I do not see that there is any cause for regret that George Conway got the knife thrust that was intended for your husband. I wish it had gone a little deeper.

DAISY. [_Coolly._] As it turns out you only did me a service. But still you haven't told me to what I owe the honour of your visit.

LEE TAI. Civility. I like to be on friendly terms with my tenants.

DAISY. [_Surprised._] Your what?

LEE TAI. [_Urbanely._] This happens to be my house. When I discovered that your honourable mother had taken the rooms in this courtyard so that you might have a place where George Conway and you could safely meet I thought I would buy the whole house.

DAISY. I hope it was a good investment.

LEE TAI. Otherwise perhaps I should have hesitated. It was clever of you to find so convenient a place. With a curio shop in front into which anyone can be seen going without remark and an ill-lit passage leading to this court, it is perfect.

DAISY. What is the idea?

LEE TAI. [_With a twinkle in his eyes._] Are you a little frightened?

DAISY. Not a bit. What can you do? You can tell Harry. Tell him.

LEE TAI. [_Affably._] George Conway would be ruined.

DAISY. [_With a shrug._] He'd lose his job. Perhaps you would give him another. You're mixed up in so many concerns you could surely find use for a white man who speaks Chinese as well as George does.

LEE TAI. I find even your shamelessness attractive.

DAISY. I'm profoundly grateful for the compliment.

LEE TAI. But do not fear. I shall do nothing. I bought this house because I like you to know that always, always you are in my hand. Where you go, I go. Where you are, I am. Sometimes you do not see me, but nevertheless I am close. I do nothing. I am content to wait.

DAISY. Your time is your own. I have no objection to your wasting it.

LEE TAI. One day, and I think that day is not very far distant, you will come to me. I was the first and I shall be the last. If you like I will marry you.

DAISY. [_With a smile._] I thought you had two, if not three, wives already. I fancy that number four would have rather a thin time.

LEE TAI. My wife can be divorced. I am willing to marry you before the British Consul. We will go to Penang. I have a house there. You shall have motor cars.

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. 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. Are your passions the weak and vacillating passions of the white man? There is in your heart a simplicity which the white man can never fathom and a deviousness which he can never understand. Your soul is like a rice patch cleared in the middle of the jungle. All around the jungle hovers, watchful and jealous, and it is only by ceaseless labour that you can prevent its inroads. One day your labour will be vain and the jungle will take back its own. China is closing in on you.

DAISY. My poor Lee Tai, you're talking perfect nonsense.

LEE TAI. You're restless and unhappy and dissatisfied because you're struggling against instincts which were implanted in your breast when the white man was a hungry, naked savage. One day you will surrender. You will cast off the white woman like an outworn garment. You will come back to China as a tired child comes back to his mother. And in the immemorial usages of our great race you will find peace.

[_There is a moment's silence._ DAISY _passes her hand over her
forehead. Against her will she is strangely impressed by what_ LEE
TAI _has said. She gives a little shudder and recovers herself_.

DAISY. George Conway loves me, and I-- Oh!

LEE TAI. The white man's love lasts no longer than a summer day. It is a red, red rose. Now it flaunts its scented beauty proudly in the sun and to-morrow its petals, wrinkled and stinking, lie scattered on the ground.

[_There is a sound of a footstep in the courtyard outside._

DAISY. Here he is. Go quickly.

[GEORGE _opens the door and stops as he catches sight of_ LEE TAI.

GEORGE. Hulloa, who's this?

[LEE TAI _steps forward, smiling and obsequious_.

LEE TAI. I am the owner of this house. The amah complained that the roof leaked and I came to see for myself.

GEORGE. [_Frowning._] It's of no consequence. Please don't bother about it.

LEE TAI. I wish I needn't. The amah has a virulent and active tongue--I am afraid she will give me no peace till I have satisfied her outrageous demands.

GEORGE. You speak extraordinarily good English.

LEE TAI. I am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh.

DAISY. Robert Burns is his favourite poet.

LEE TAI. I spent a year at Oxford and another at Harvard. I can express myself in English not without fluency.

GEORGE. Let me compliment you on your good sense in retaining your national costume. I think it a pity that the returned students should insist on wearing ugly tweed suits and billycock hats.

LEE TAI. I spent eight years abroad. I brought back with me no more admiration for Western dress than for Western civilization.

GEORGE. That is very interesting.

LEE TAI. You are pleased to be sarcastic.

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? Have you excelled us in arts or letters? Have our thinkers been less profound than yours? Has our civilization been less elaborate, less complicated, less refined than yours? Why, when you lived in caves and clothed yourselves with skins we were a cultured people. Do you know that we tried an experiment which is unique in the world?

GEORGE. [_Good-naturedly._] What experiment is that?

LEE TAI. We sought to rule this great people not by force, but by wisdom. And for centuries we succeeded. Then why does the white man despise the yellow? Shall I tell you?

GEORGE. Do.

LEE TAI. [_With a smiling contempt._] Because he has invented the machine-gun. That is your superiority. We are a defenceless horde and you can blow us into eternity. [_With a tinge of sadness._] You have shattered the dream of our philosophers that the world could be governed by the power of law and order.... And now you are teaching our young men your secret. You have thrust your hideous inventions upon us. Fools. 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? And what will become of your superiority when the yellow man can make as good guns as the white and fire them as straight? You have appealed to the machine-gun and by the machine-gun shall you be judged.

[_There is a pause. Suddenly_ GEORGE _gives_ LEE TAI _a
scrutinizing glance_.

GEORGE. What is your name?

LEE TAI. [_With a thin, amused smile._] Lee Tai Cheng.

GEORGE. [_With a frigid politeness._] I'm sure you are very busy, Mr. Lee. I won't detain you any longer.

LEE TAI. [_Still smiling._] I wish you a good day.

[_He bows slightly and shakes his own hands in the Chinese manner.
He goes out. He leaves behind him an impression that is at once
ironic and sinister._

GEORGE. What the devil is he doing here?

DAISY. [_Amused._] He came to make me an offer of marriage. I pointed out to him that I was married already.

GEORGE. [_Not without irritation._] How did he know you were here?

DAISY. He made it his business to find out.

GEORGE. Does he know that...?

DAISY. [_Coolly._] You know China better than most Englishmen. You know that the white man can do nothing without the Chinese knowing it. But they won't tell other white men unless--unless it's to their advantage to do so.

GEORGE. You told me that this house belonged to the amah.

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. Andre Leroux came to see me just as I was leaving the Legation.

DAISY. [_Remembering._] I know. Mrs. Stopfort's young man.

GEORGE. He said he knew Mrs. Stopfort's friends were rather anxious about her future and he wanted them to know that he was going to marry her as soon as she was free.

DAISY. Oh!

GEORGE. Of course it's the only decent thing to do, but I wasn't sure if he'd see it. He's a very good fellow. [_With a smile._] He spent at least half an hour telling me how he adored Mrs. Stopfort.

DAISY. [_Good-humouredly._] Oh, you know I'm not the sort of woman to grouse because you're a little late. I can always occupy myself by thinking how wonderful it will be to see you. And if I get bored with that I read your letters again.

GEORGE. I shouldn't have thought they were worth that.

DAISY. I think I have every word you have ever written to me--those old letters of ten years ago and the little notes you write to me now. Even though they're only two or three lines, saying you'll come here or can't come, they're precious to me.

GEORGE. But do you keep them here?

DAISY. Yes, they're safe here. They're locked up in that box. Only amah has the key of this room ... George.

GEORGE. Yes.

DAISY. Will you do something for me?

GEORGE. If I can.

DAISY. Will you dine here to-night? Amah will get us a lovely little dinner.

GEORGE. Oh, my dear, I can't! I've got an official dinner that I can't possibly get out of.

DAISY. Oh, how rotten!

GEORGE. But I thought Harry was coming back this morning. He's been gone a week already.

DAISY. I had a letter saying he had to go on to Kalgan. But don't say anything about it. He told me I was to keep it a secret.

GEORGE. He must hate having to be away so much as he's been lately. The death of that man Gregson has upset things rather.

DAISY. [_Smiling._] I wish I could thank Gregson for the good turn he did _us_ by dying at the psychological moment.

GEORGE. [_Dryly._] I don't suppose that was his intention.

DAISY. Except for that Harry would have insisted on going to Chung-king. Now there's no possibility of that for at least a year.

GEORGE. I suppose not.

DAISY. We've got a year before us, George, a whole year. And in a year anything can happen.

GEORGE. [_Gravely._] Do you never have any feeling that we've behaved rottenly to Harry?

DAISY. I? I've been happy for the first time in my life. At last I've known peace and rest. Oh, George, I'm so grateful for all you've given me! In these three months you've changed the whole world for me. I thought I couldn't love you more than I did. I think every day my love grows more consuming.

GEORGE. [_With a sigh._] I've never known a single moment's happiness.

DAISY. That's not true. When I've held you in my arms I've looked into your eyes and I've seen.

GEORGE. Oh, I know. There've been moments of madness in which I forgot everything but that I loved you. I'm a low rotten cad. No one could despise me more than I despise myself. I've loved you so that there was room for nothing else in my soul. Waking and sleeping you've obsessed me.

DAISY. That's how I want you to love me.

GEORGE. And I've hated myself for loving you. I've hated you for making me love you. I've struggled with all my might and a hundred times I thought I'd conquered myself and then the touch of your hand, the softness of your lips--I was like a bird in a cage, I beat myself against the bars and all the time the door was open and I hadn't the will to fly out.

DAISY. [_Tenderly._] Oh, darling, why do you make yourself unhappy when happiness lies in the hollow of your hand?

GEORGE. Have you never regretted anything?

DAISY. Never.

GEORGE. You're stronger than I am. I'm as weak as dishwater. It's funny that it should have taken me all these years to find it out. I was weak from the beginning. But I was weakest of all that day. I was distracted, I thought you were dying, I forgot everything except that I loved you.

DAISY. [_With passion._] Oh, my sweetheart! Don't you remember how, late in the night, we went outside the temple and looked at the moonlight on the walls of the Forbidden City? You had no regrets then.

GEORGE. [_Going on with his own thoughts._] And afterwards your tears, your happiness, the dread of giving you pain and the hot love that burnt me--I was in the toils then. I too knew a happiness that I had never known before. On one side was honesty and duty and everything that makes a man respect himself--and on the other was love. I thought you'd be going away in two or three weeks and that would be the end of it. Oh, it was no excuse--there are no excuses for me, I can never look Harry in the face again, but though my heart was breaking at the thought, I--I knew that in a few days I should see you for the last time.

DAISY. [_Scornfully._] Do you think I'd have gone then?

GEORGE. And then came that sudden, unexpected, disastrous change in all Harry's plans. And this house and all the sordid horror of an intrigue. And then there was nothing to do but face the fact that I was a cur. I wouldn't wish my worst enemy the torture that I've undergone.

DAISY. [_Full of love and pity._] Oh, my darling, you know I'd do anything in the world to give you happiness!

GEORGE. [_Sombrely looking away from her._] Daisy, I think you can never give me happiness, but you can help me, not to make amends because that's impossible, but to ... [_Impulsively, looking at her now._] Oh, Daisy, do you really love me?

DAISY. With all my heart. With all my soul.

GEORGE. Then help me. Let us finish.

DAISY. [_Quickly._] What do you mean?

GEORGE. I don't want to seem a prig. I don't want to preach. Heaven knows, I've never pretended to be a saint. But what we've done is wrong. You must see that as plainly as I do.

DAISY. Is it wrong to love? How can I help it?

GEORGE. Daisy, I want to--cease doing wrong.

DAISY. You make me impatient. How can you be so weak?

GEORGE. I want you to believe that I love you. But I can't go on with this deceit. I'd sooner shoot myself.

DAISY. You couldn't say that if you loved me as I love you.

GEORGE. [_Brutally._] I _don't_ love you any more.

DAISY. [_With a scornful shrug._] That's not true.

GEORGE. [_Clenching his teeth._] I came here to-day to tell you that--well, that it's finished and done with. Oh, God, I don't want to make you unhappy! But you must see we can't go on. Everything that's decent in me revolts at the thought. I beseech you to forget me.

DAISY. As if I could.

GEORGE. I'm going away for a bit.

DAISY. [_Startled._] You? Why?

GEORGE. I didn't trust myself, you see; I've lost my nerve, so I applied for short leave. I'm sailing for Vancouver on the _Empress_. I leave here the day after to-morrow.

DAISY. [_Suddenly distraught._] You don't mean that you're going to leave me? I didn't pay any attention to what you said. I thought it was just a mood. George, George, say that you don't mean that?

GEORGE. It's the only thing to do, for your sake and Harry's and mine. [_Taking his courage in both hands._] This is good-bye, Daisy.

DAISY. [_Seizing him by the shoulders._] Let me look at your eyes. George, you're crazy. You can't go.

GEORGE. [_Drawing away._] For God's sake, don't touch me. I wanted to break it to you gently. I don't know what's happened. Everything has gone wrong. I'm going, Daisy, and nothing in the world can move me. I implore you to bear it bravely. [_She looks at him with suffering, anxious eyes. She is stunned._] I'm afraid you're going to be awfully unhappy for a little while. But I beseech you to have courage. Soon the pain won't be so great, and then you'll see I've done the only possible thing.

DAISY. [_Sullenly._] How long are you going for?

GEORGE. Three or four months. [_A pause._] I knew you'd be brave, Daisy. Do you know, I was afraid you'd cry most awfully. It tears my heart to see you cry.

DAISY. Do you think I'm a child? Do you think I can cry now?

GEORGE. It's good-bye, then, Daisy.