Five Nights

New York and the subs

Francisco I was

zee, though I recognised in a dull way that some sort of distraction and companionship would be the best thing to stop this incessant pondering on the same subject. I slept little at ni

subconsciousness for a year," as she put it in her letter-for to fo

to visit the town. It rolled in great thick billows down the streets from the sand dunes, ob

it seemed strange to me now, hard to realise that I was alone. How many rooms such as these, she and I had come into, shared together, and how bright and gay her companionship had always been, how she had always laughed at the discomforts or the difficulties of our travels! Surely we had been made for each other! What st

. To-night? What would it bring forth? Should I find her? The vitalising breath of excitement began to creep through me. I finished my dinner hurriedly, swallowed my black coffee at a draught, and made my way down the room and out to the hall, putting on my hat and coat as I went. I found the guide I had asked for when I f

you know every hole and cranny of the place

inned as he

on. I evidently went up in his estimation as he recognised the acumen I had shewed

o go there, but they'll

of the shore; a few stars shone above. The shops were still open, and their huge plate-glass windows blazed with light. We walked rapidly through these streets towards the Chinese quarter where the noise and light ceased. The streets were quiet

to him to be appropriate to the occasion. I hardly heard him. At one moment I was lost in a bitter reflection of how many excursions an

as we passed. Some were frame houses with signs hanging out, painted in Chinese characters and with wonderful red door-posts; some had l

was an open square of blackness, either window or door, through which we scrambled from the swaying rungs and then found ourselves in a passage. It was very low, apparently, for I struck my head whenever I held it upright, and so narrow that our shoulders brushed the sides. It was in fact a little tunnel, reminding one of the rounded runways a rabbit makes in thick undergrow

ed a very stout one, securely fastened, and had a small aperture, at the height of one's face from the ground. It

was cautiously opened and I saw a face peering through at me

my guide. "They're a real bad lot here, and they're precio

d. It was a pretty good password to have, for I should think no stranger could imit

t. A lamp was standing somewhere at the side of the room, behind thin, red curtains. As I entered, another door at the end of the room swung to on a retreating form. Some one had gone out. The room seemed empty. It was very small

said unde

ted cry, and the next moment a little form

her up, and pressed my lips on her hair. It smelt of roses, just as it had done in the tea-sh

of hungered, starving love, what a sharp contrast to the cool, slow surrender of Viola, if surrender it could be called, that lending of the beautiful body, with total reserve of the spirit! Even in that moment of t

to pour her own upon me in the wildest, most lavish excess. At last, when s

at you are doing in this awful place.

rs. Hackett she was very good to me, only she wanted to sell me for two hundred and fifty dollars to Chinaman. I said, 'N

you get the money all ri

; and Nanine had it and so

ng round. The whole place, with its hidden entrance, secret passages,

ey, whatever I got. She is good to the girls here, but she takes all their money, all, they never have any. So I said to myself, 'What is the use? Besides, he will come soon and take you away.' And to Nanine I said-'Englishman will be so angry with you and with me, perhaps he will kill you or tell the police if you do not k

words came eagerly from her lips that they were the truth. Her exquisite, un

led a

afraid to be otherwise. I want to hear a lot more about your husband and how you came here, but I thin

vered trunk beside her. "That has my silk clothes in it an

ight. It might be managed. It was getting late, most of the people in the hotel would be in bed when we g

t up your trunk and put somethi

oom and reappeared with a fat, coarse-looking woman who grinned amiably as she saw me. She agreed to let Suzee go with me then and the

I was, and asked how it was the girl had come to her at all. She seemed a little confused at that, and began to explain volubly that she had had nothing to do with it. Suzee had come ther

ruth, did not prolong the conversation. When the guide came back and said h

nother yard from which we gained the street. The ladder way, I take it, was used chiefly as a convenient exit in case of a

ther men. Always having been different from others since his childhood, the artist is accustomed to the gaping wonder, the ridicule as well as the admiration, the misunderstanding, of th

driver, pushed open the swinging glass door

was, the band had ceased playing, but there were numbers of men lounging about and

t rather than heard the gasp of horror that our entry caused. The elevator boy almost coll

o restrain our movements, and we re

here; the rooms looked better, more comfortab

ok and gesture. Gay and radiant in her brilliant scarlet silk, she m

I saw her look curiously into the jug of iced wat

t mind, and I never drink anything but tea.

ent down on her knees before her little trunk and opened it, tur

manager burst suddenly into the room. He looke

hat you mean by behaving like

started; the girl stared up at him with a look of a

ake a turn in the corridor with me."

e going in any case as soon as we could get off; in the mean time, the engagement of the next room to mine at seven dollars a day for Suzee would satisfy the proprieties.

he lights, and saying what a fine one it was. I promised Suzee should occupy it, and told him we wanted supper and so

er scarlet dress into one of the palest blue, the most exquisite soft tone of colour conceivable. It was all embroidered round the edge of the little jacket and the wide falling sleeves in mauve and silver, and she had twisted some mauve flowers and h

f, but the senses count for much in this life a

told her she was beautiful, a vision to dazzle one.

Set out on the table was a queer little silver box of tea and four delicate, transparent cups or basins

ming up to the table and putting my

t's all an English mistake. Chi

derneath and set it on the top, its rim exactly enclosed the edge of the cup. Raising the saucer a trifle at one side, she poured the infusion into one of the other little bowls

e said, lifting the tiny egg-s

ot basin in my hand and holding it by a little rim at th

il it. You drink that

rained it off into another as before, then picked up the second by the bottom rim, drai

asked. "It is real gol

od tea,

lavour. I told her so and took a

and departed. I offered Suzee the wine, but she said she had all the tea she

what happened at Sitka," I said

business and when he came back one day after, he had a fearful cough, and then he got very ill and went to bed, and I sat beside him and he got worse and worse. Oh, so bad, and the doctor came and he had very muc

Suzee as the devoted nurse passing sleepless nights and

ening of the skin I had noted before at Sitka, and knew the blood was mountin

Treevor," she said,

cting you," I repl

My bones stuck out so," she put her hands edgeways to her sides to indicate how her ribs, now remarkably well covered, had stood out from her sufferings;

out the chil

d very soon after. He caught

ld and cough, too

ried so much when he died. My baby boy

of tears at the recollection, but I did not see any fall, and

d what his last moments had been like, and whether those dainty fingers had

sked. "How did it come that you

hing. Then he said he had offer from big Chinaman who would buy me, and he said my husband owe him lot of money, he sell me, get it ba

s brother get the money for

don't know how he will get the money. He will make Nanine give him some,

aug

upper, come over here and sit on my kne

to me, a lovely, shimmering, Or

e, some day just as you

r something like that.

incar

ned and th

t understand you when you talk like tha

when I shewed Suzee her own room, where accordi

ed as we w

he said; "I am frightened at it. Won't

quick and go to sleep; you will soon forget the size of the room. I am

ggling with the artificial fell on the table with its scattered plates

tood looking out. The waves of soft white fog filled

om my eyes, and my mind flew out over intervening s

nd gazing, too, into this white light, and longing for me. Surely she would be that? The words

us permanently, really. Perhaps even

e waited through this year alone, since nothing could really satisfy or delight me in her a

o wish that I should pass this mysterious year

rself to me she seemed rather to wish than otherwise that I should seek adventures, experiences elsewhere. And I felt indefinitely, yet strongly

even left me solely for this, with this idea. Knowing herself unable to bear the pain of infidelity to her when s

she had sai

ose image would be with him as he passed from this world, than his first; poor little t

was the use of speculation

and I, if I fulfilled her expressed wishes, was doing the utmos

al and physical, and as the light grew stronger,

e room seemed empty. I looked round. No Suzee. I went up to the bed. It had apparen

from under the bed with one of the blankets round her. Her hair was a lovely undisarranged mass; but the rosebuds in it were dead, and it wa

n there?" I asked. "Was

. You see, I have always been accustomed to something over m

rounded shoulders and sweetly moul

u?" she added, with a

, almost on one's head, that are the rule

shew that you have slept underneath instead of inside. I am go

ch she rolled like a kitten, kissed

he journey. This was harmless, however, and I did not mind, while Suzee sat apparently sublimely unconscious of the rude star

. I had taken tickets for two from 'Frisco to City of Mexico when the clerk, looking s

t?" I d

s," he remarked ters

om another clerk while the first was engaged, and then joined her. I began to realise that pett

a table a little away from the staring crowd, I said: "I exp

ivory-hued cheek on her hand as she looked across at me adoringly. Had I

ubmissive to me in public. You see, it's not at all the fashion with us

ily: the idea se

se general attention. We found, however, a sensible saleswoman to whom I explained that I wanted

self back on a chair a

grey cloth of hideous Western dress she looked simply a little guy. Reading my face at a glance, her own clouded instantly, and in another s

he prettiest costume

ng lady without any corsets, and she is really so s

o stood at least five feet eleven. I could not bear to see my little Suzee so disfigured. However, that she looked far more ordinary could not be disputed. She would attract less attention now, and that might be an

o the millinery. Amongst these frightful edifices my heart sank still more, but I steeled myself to the ordeal, an

did not lend itself to any Western hat. Hat and hair together m

in despai

fferent way. Could you take it down now and

on me in m

or a fortnight!" she answered simply, while the shop-

once a fortnight?" I enqui

was done just before you came. I thought it w

cented, shining coiffure was

shoulders. But had I not often waited for her till I was deadly sleepy, and when at length she came to the bed

ver detained its owner at night except

pay for it, which I did, and she walked away with me in her Western clothes. At the glove counter things went well, and she triumphed over her civilised

little ordinary, unattractive European girl. It rather ruffled my vanity to think she should look like this, but I consoled myself with thinking o

it, though Suzee somewhat disdainfully remarked it wa

is face. He evidently thought I had erred again and this was another investment. He was about to impart vigorously his opinion of me when a hasty gla

sly at you?" enquired Suzee, as we wer

g you here," I answered laughing. "He thinks a

as he

e you saw sitting in the

hin and pursed up he

was always down with the girls in Chinato

t the key in, and

his hotel," I answered. "It's always the way. You can tell

got her to pose for me that I might catch the f

o I did not press it, but told her to dress as she had been dressed the previou

g herself I sat back

rable action, had posed for me so simply and fearlessly, viewing the whole matter from that artistic standpoint which is so lofty because so really pure; and this girl, wh

he bizarre Oriental costume, and I wanted her to

and failed to keep the same pose or expression. Sh

I said. "What is the matter? Can't you sta

heart reproached me as I thought of Viola and the hours she ha

'The Spoiled Favourite of the Harem,' Throw yours

right arm hung over the side, in her left hand she held a cigarette,

attitude, weary and enervated, gave the idea of

p still without much difficulty, and her

ch interest in the picture, however, but rather regard it grudgingly as it took up my attention. She was only hap

we started on our

TNO

berth for two person