Kai Lung’s Golden Hours - Ernest Bramah (the reading strategies book .TXT) 📗

they are definitely moving in the direction of Shen Yi’s mansion. ‘Where the road bends abruptly take short steps,’ Chang Tao.”

“The necessity will be lifted from your venerable shoulders, revered,” replied Chang Tao firmly. “Fortified by your approving choice, this person will himself confront Shen Yi’s doubtful countenance, and that same bend in the road will be taken at a very sharp angle and upon a single foot.”

“In person! It is opposed to the Usages!” exclaimed the venerable; and at the contemplation of so undignified a course his voice prudently withdrew itself, though his mouth continued to open and close for a further period.

“ ‘As the mountains rise, so the river winds,’ ” replied Chang Tao, and with unquenchable deference he added respectfully as he took his leave, “Fear not, eminence; you will yet remain to see five generations of stalwart he-children, all pressing forward to worship your imperishable memory.”

In such a manner Chang Tao set forth to defy the Usages and⁠—if perchance it might be⁠—to speak to Shen Yi face to face of Melodious Vision. Yet in this it may be that the youth was not so much hopeful of success by his own efforts as that he was certain of failure by the elder Chang’s. And in the latter case the person in question might then irrevocably contract him to a maiden of the house of Tung, or to another equally forbidding. Not inaptly is it written: “To escape from fire men will plunge into boiling water.”

Nevertheless, along the Stone Path many doubts and disturbances arose within Chang Tao’s mind. It was not in this manner that men of weight and dignity sought wives. Even if Shen Yi graciously overlooked the absence of polite formality, would not the romantic imagination of Melodious Vision be distressed when she learned that she had been approached with so indelicate an absence of ceremony? “Here, again,” said Chang Tao’s self-reproach accusingly, “you have, as usual, gone on in advance of both your feet and of your head. ‘It is one thing to ignore the Rites: it is quite another to expect the gods to ignore the Penalties.’ Assuredly you will suffer for it.”

It was at this point that Chang Tao was approached by one who had noted his coming from afar, and had awaited him, for passersby were sparse and remote.

“Prosperity attend your opportune footsteps,” said the stranger respectfully. “A misbegotten goat-track enticed this person from his appointed line by the elusive semblance of an avoided li. Is there, within your enlightened knowledge, the house of one Shen Yi, who makes a feast today, positioned about this inauspicious region? It is further described as fronting on a summer-seat domed with red copper.”

“There is such a house as you describe, at no great distance to the west,” replied Chang Tao. “But that he marks the day with music had not reached these superficial ears.”

“It is but among those of his inner chamber, this being the name-day of one whom he would honour in a refined and at the same time inexpensive manner. To that end am I bidden.”

“Of what does your incomparable exhibition consist?” inquired Chang Tao.

“Of a variety of quite commonplace efforts. It is entitled ‘Half-a-gong-stroke among the No-realities; or Gravity-removing devoid of Inelegance.’ Thus, borrowing the neck-scarf of the most dignified-looking among the lesser ones assembled I will at once discover among its folds the unsuspected presence of a family of tortoises; from all parts of the person of the roundest-bodied mandarin available I will control the appearance of an inexhaustible stream of copper cash, and beneath the scrutinizing eyes of all a bunch of paper chrysanthemums will change into the similitude of a crystal bowl in whose clear depth a company of gold and silver carp glide from side to side.”

“These things are well enough for the immature, and the sight of an unnaturally stout official having an interminable succession of white rabbits produced from the various recesses of his waistcloth admittedly melts the austerity of the superficial of both sexes. But can you, beneath the undeceptive light of day, turn a sere and unattractive hag into the substantial image of a young and beguiling maiden, and by a further complexity into a fruitful fig-tree; or induce a serpent so far to forsake its natural instincts as to poise on the extremity of its tail and hold a charm within its mouth?”

“None of these things lies within my admitted powers,” confessed the stranger. “To what end does your gracious inquiry tend?”

“It is in the nature of a warning, for within the shadow of the house you seek manifestations such as I describe pass almost without remark. Indeed it is not unlikely that while in the act of displaying your engaging but simple skill you may find yourself transformed into a chameleon or saddled with the necessity of finishing your gravity-removing entertainment under the outward form of a Manchurian ape.”

“Alas!” exclaimed the other. “The eleventh of the moon was ever this person’s unlucky day, and he would have done well to be warned by a dream in which he saw an unsuspecting kid walk into the mouth of a voracious tiger.”

“Undoubtedly the tiger was an allusion to the dangers awaiting you, but it is not yet too late for you to prove that you are no kid,” counselled Chang Tao. “Take this piece of silver so that the enterprise of the day may not have been unfruitful and depart with all speed on a homeward path. He who speaks is going westward, and at the lattice of Shen Yi he will not fail to leave a sufficient excuse for your no-appearance.”

“Your voice has the compelling ring of authority, beneficence,” replied the stranger gratefully. “The obscure name of the one who prostrates himself is Wo, that of his degraded father being Weh. For this service he binds his ghost to attend your ghost through three cycles of time in the After.”

“It is remitted,” said Chang Tao generously, as he resumed his way.