Part 5 (1/2)

'You are sure she won't tell her mother-in-law or any female friends who come to the house?'

'I am certain she won't say anything about it to Ku Nai-nai, and I don't believe she has any friends. She wants to get away from here and come to me in Peking. But there's Little Yi,' Nelly went on. 'She'll be cross if I tell An Ching and not her.'

'Well, well,' said Chang, 'of course she will have to know, and it may as well be now.'

And then he told Nelly about his son's idea that she should write to her father.

Nelly was delighted, until she suddenly remembered that she had nothing to write with.

Chang at first said that she must do her best with Chinese paper and the brush that the Chinese use for a pen, but then he recollected that Chi Fu had a lead pencil and some foreign paper, of which he was very proud.

He promised to throw them over the wall, and went on to talk about his clever son. He had by no means finished when Nelly, who spied An Ching coming, suddenly began to sing most vigorously. Chang broke off and vanished, leaving Nelly standing in the middle of the court foolishly looking at the wall.

'Whatever is the matter?' An Ching asked when she had hobbled into the court. 'What are you looking at?'

'Nothing,' said Nelly; 'at least he's gone now.'

'Who? What do you mean?' exclaimed An Ching.

'The Christian--I mean Chang.'

An Ching was more and more puzzled, and looked at Nelly in wonder.

At length Nelly said, 'Come and sit down and I'll tell you all about it.'

They both sat down on the bench near the wall, and Nelly told her tale to the astonished An Ching, or rather she half told it, for just as she was in the middle of it Ku Nai-nai came shouting for that lazy An Ching to come indoors.

You may be sure that An Ching made haste to finish up her work after they had all eaten their mid-day meal. She and Nelly got out to the court alone, and Nelly was able to finish the exciting story. An Ching was too surprised to offer any advice. She agreed, however, that Little Yi must know at once, and when that young lady joined them she was told the wonderful news of the man in the next compound who was willing to help them to get away.

Little Yi was quite as enthusiastic about it as was possible to a Chinese girl. She wanted Nelly to throw over some red paper at once to call Chang, but An Ching said that as Ku Nai-nai had already been smoking and dozing some time, she might call them at any moment, so it was decided that they should wait until next day, and throw over the paper as soon as ever Ku Nai-nai was comfortably settled on the kang with her pipe.

Poor An Ching! she hated the thought of being left behind, and was dreadfully disappointed when she heard that Chang had said he could not take her; but she promised to do nothing to hinder their flight in any case. There was one thing she did not want to do, though, and that was to talk to Chang over the wall unless his wife were there. 'You must see him first, Nelly,' she said, 'and tell him to send up his wife to talk to me, or else get two ladders. It would not be at all proper for me to speak to a strange man alone. Respectable Chinese young women never do that.' Nelly saw no objection, though she thought An Ching was foolish, and it was decided that she and Little Yi should receive Chang next day.

CHAPTER X

PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT

If Ku Nai-nai had been more wide-awake, she could hardly have failed to notice how quickly the housework and cooking were done next day; but as she was not given to interesting herself in other people's motives (although she was very suspicious when there was the slightest cause for it, and sometimes when there was none at all), she did not observe that Little Yi was eager to prepare her pipe and pot of tea, while An Ching and Nelly wiped out the bowls and put them in the cook-house. There is not much to do in a Chinese family--no scrubbing or polis.h.i.+ng; the cooking, too, is quite simple in the ordinary home. The stone floors are swept and the furniture wiped over. The Chinese don't mind dust, but they like to have things in their places and the rooms orderly. Chinese girls never come in from a walk and throw their hats and gloves on a chair, because, to begin with, they don't wear hats and gloves, and they very seldom go for walks.

An Ching pretended to be cross because Nelly had spilled some rice, and told the children to go off and leave her to finish alone. They went directly to their favourite side court, and at once got the red paper out of the heap of stones and threw a piece with a pebble inside over the wall. Nelly finding that she could not throw any better than before, Little Yi tried, and succeeded very well--so well, indeed, that Chang was there with his ladder in almost no time after they had left the house. He gave the children the usual Chinese greeting of, 'Fine day. Are you well?'

Nelly replied: 'Quite well. It is rather hot. This is Little Yi.'

Chang hoped Little Yi was well, and when she had replied that she was, and hoped he was too, he asked for 'the young Ku Nai-nai,' meaning An Ching.

Nelly explained (not without the a.s.sistance of Little Yi, who liked to put in her word) that An Ching did not consider it proper to talk to Chang without his wife.

Chang repeated this to his wife, who was at the foot of the ladder.