“That was why you wished to see me here?”

He nodded. “Part of the house and yet not it. There’s something about the pagoda. I always thought so.” He looked at the crumbling figure of the goddess, at the shaft of sunlight penetrating the roof. “I used to come here as a boy. And I thought: In the pagoda I can talk to Jane.”

“There is nothing we have to say as yet,” I answered. “I need time to think. I am unsure of many things.”

“You need your specified year,” he said.

“Yes, I need my year.”

“And you will not marry within that year?”

“I will not.”

“And how am I to live a year without you?”

“I suggest in the same way that you have been living so far.”

“You ask a lot, Jane.”

“When we truly love we are prepared to give a lot.”

He regarded me steadily. “I have never felt towards anyone else as I do towards you. I shall live for the time when we are together. One year to the day I shall be back for you. Then we shall go through that ceremony the second time, only the next time it will be binding.” Then he came to me again and took me into his arms and he kissed me and there was the same magic in his embrace that I remembered so well.

A few days later Adam told me that Joliffe had left Hong Kong.


* * *

There was not a great deal of time for riding. I wondered whether I should engage a governess for Jason but it would have probably meant bringing someone out from England and I enjoyed those lessons so much. Jason was so bright and it was not merely maternal pride which made me think so; and Lottie’s quaintness amused me and her eagerness to learn delighted me. I could not give up my little schoolroom which I had set up in one of the top rooms. I had put up a big wooden table and there was a cupboard in which books could be kept. Over the table hung the center lantern. Jason loved to be allowed to light the oil lamp inside it. From the window we could see the pagoda, which dominated the view from all windows on that side of the house.

I was confiding a great deal in Toby. I made a point of going to the Go-Down every day after the first few weeks. I was learning more and more from Toby and he was delighted to teach me. Our friendship grew warmer. I knew he was a man whom I could trust. I told him I would not stay in Hong Kong forever. There would come a time when I could no longer teach Jason and he would have to go away to school. That would be in a few years’ time and I would not consider the idea of his being in England while I was here.

“There’s time to work that out,” said Toby.

“Plenty of time,” I answered. “Sylvester was delighted to be able to leave everything in your good hands. That was the only reason he could stay in England as long as he did.”

“You can rely on me as he did,” he answered earnestly and when he looked into my face I did not want to meet his gaze. That he hoped for a deeper relationship I knew. I had been aware of this before even though Toby was too honorable a man to have willingly given me an inkling of this while Sylvester lived—but I had sensed it.

Sometimes I used to think what an admirable solution that would be… as far as the business was concerned. I could never have had a better manager. He could be firm and certainly his opinions and ideas of how things should be done were unwaveringly honorable, and he was almost always right. I knew that he was completely trustworthy.

As for my feelings for him they went deep. I respected him; I admired him; I liked his company for he had a light wit which was the best sort since it did not depend on hurting others to achieve its point. I could have seen marriage with him as a happy ending… if I had never known Joliffe. I could have had a life of peaceful contentment.

Strangely enough my relationship with Adam had begun to change. I was stimulated by his company where at one time I had been irritated. I found his serious, aloof, and rather critical approach amusing.

One day we went independently to a mandarin’s palace where certain objects of art were being offered for sale. I had taken to going to such places alone more and more often, which had caused some surprise in the beginning but now was being accepted. It was recognized that I was an unusual woman. I was known as Madam Milner, the wife of the great Sylvester Milner, one of the richest traders in the Far East. And he had left everything to me. At first it was believed that this was the action of a man in his dotage who was enamored of a wife so much younger than himself. But I had done well, it seemed. Perhaps it was due to Toby’s influence that I was accepted. I was different because I was a woman. I had a woman’s intuition. My knowledge of Chinese Art was becoming formidable. And I kept a good manager in Toby Grantham who, everyone knew, was of the best. He remained loyal to me although it was rumored that he had had attractive offers from other companies. It seemed that I was not to be lightly dismissed.

My rickshaw man was a familiar sight in the town and I noticed passers-by watch me with lowered eyes. They would murmur something about Madam and the strangeness of foreign devils who set up their women as though they were goddesses.

On this particular occasion as the house was some miles away in the country I rode there on horseback. At first on these expeditions I had taken Toby with me but later formed the habit of going alone.

The mandarin’s house looked like an ivory carving as I approached; it was gilded and ornate like The House of a Thousand Lanterns and stood upon a platform paved with beautiful mosaics.

My horse was taken by a servant and I went into the house. The door opened onto a large square hall which again reminded me of our own at The House of a Thousand Lanterns. The beams of the roof were supported by columns which were painted in bright colors. I made out the form of the ubiquitous dragon.

In this room were several objects for display and these were what I and several others had come to see. Most of the people assembled were Europeans and many of them known to me. I was greeted on all sides and I felt a little glow of satisfaction by their manner which told me clearly that I was accepted as one of them.

There was one beautiful leaping figure which I admired very much. I was standing looking at it when I felt someone close behind me, and, turning, saw Adam.

“I see we have one thought in mind,” he said.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “I can’t quite place the period.”

“Chou Dynasty, I think.”

“As far back?”

“It’s probably copied by someone in a later century but the Chou influence is there.” His face glowed a little. “There’s such movement in it. Definitely Chou influence. It betrays the kind of people they were—lively and barbaric.”

I said admiringly: “I wish I were as knowledgeable as you.”

“I’ve had a little longer to learn. Besides with me it’s a full-time occupation… or dedication if you like. You have had other things to absorb you.”

“I’m still eager to learn all I can.”

“Good, but you’ll never catch up.”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“You have a child who is more to you than Art of any kind.”

“Perhaps that makes me appreciate beauty all the more.”

He shook his head. “Emotional entanglements take the mind off Art.”

“It’s not borne out. Great artists have often been great lovers.”

“Yet the one great love of their lives is their Art. The gods and goddesses of the Arts would not tolerate rivalry. But I’m not an artist, I’m only an appreciator. To learn of these things is entirely absorbing, so much reading, so much research. There isn’t time for anything else.”

“I don’t agree with you. Artists and appreciators of Art would know nothing of life if they didn’t experience it.”

“This is not the sort of conversation to carry on here. Let’s continue it later. I shall try for the Chou figure. What of you?”

“I want it,” I said.

“May the best man… or woman… win.”

We looked at other things. There were some beautiful ivory pieces. I bid for some of these and got them and I found a beautiful Ming vase which delighted me.

These would be collected later by someone whom Toby would send from the Go-Down. Then I went back to the Chou piece intending to bid for it.

To my dismay it had gone.

Adam was smiling at me sardonically.

“A little negotiating,” he said.

“But…”

“It sometimes happens. You see, there are certain things you have yet to learn.”

I was put out not only to have lost my chance of getting the piece but to have been proved wanting… and by Adam.

“Never mind,” he said. “Next time perhaps we could go together and I could give you a little advice. I shall accompany you back for I do not think it is wise for you to ride through the country alone.”

I was about to protest but having been shown my lack of experience in one matter I was a little subdued.

As we rode back, he talked about the various dynasties and he glowed with a kind of inner radiance. I could have listened entranced for hours.

“This Woman Supreme idea at the moment is absorbing,” he said. “You are doing very well, but you’ll grow tired of it.”

“If you mean carrying on as my husband intended me to I can assure you I won’t.”

“You could always have a say in how everything was run. But won’t there be times when family matters take over?”

“My son’s education you mean?”

“That, of course, but if you were to marry again…”

I was silent.

“You are young and attractive. There will be offers. After all you yourself have a good deal to offer. You are a woman of substance.”

“Quite a good catch, in fact,” I said.

“There must be some who are aware of it.”

“So I am bait for the fortune hunters?”

“I’ll swear there are one or two who would be delighted to take charge of your interests.”

“Perhaps, and they will find that I intend to keep charge of these myself.”

“You should marry,” he said gently. “But be careful, be wary before you take a hasty step in that direction.”

“I promise you I shall be very wary.”

He leaned towards me suddenly and laid his hand on mine.

Then he withdrew it sharply.

“If at any time you need my help on any matter,” he said, “I shall be glad to give it.”

“Thank you.”

When he helped me from my horse I fancied he held me a little longer than was necessary; our eyes met briefly; his gaze had lost its coldness.

Later the Chou piece arrived at the house. It was addressed to me and when I saw what it was I went to Adam and told him that there had been a mistake. The piece he had ordered to be sent to him had come to me.

He smiled at me. “It’s no mistake. It was for you.”

“But you bought it.”

“True and now it’s yours. A gift from me.”

“Adam!” I cried. “But it’s so beautiful!”

“I should not want to give you something you did not think desirable.”

I turned away. I felt a new emotion.

He said quietly: “I’m glad it pleases you.”

And I knew suddenly that there were three men who wished to marry me.

Joliffe who had said so vehemently, Toby who had shown me through his devotion, and now Adam who had told me so with a Chou figure.

I had the hazy impression that the house was laughing at me. Three men indeed! The answer is not hard to find. You are by no means old. You are moderately attractive and you are very rich.


* * *

With all the practical matters which had had to be settled since Sylvester’s death I had not at first thought so much about the house; then suddenly the realization that I was the owner of The House of a Thousand Lanterns began to obsess me.

I went from room to room. I liked to be alone, to shut myself in, to brood, to ask myself if it was true that these strange emotions which the place aroused in me had grown out of my imagination. How easy it was to believe that a house such as this was a living thing, that it was saying something to me.

I longed for Sylvester to be there, to talk to me as we used to. I missed him so much and found it impossible to stop grieving for him. I had relied on him. I was constantly wanting to ask his advice about some new discovery and longed to be able to talk to him about so many things. Sometimes I would wake from a hazy dream in which I was touching some article which had delighted me. I would be saying: “I must show this to Sylvester.” Then would come the sad realization that I could never show him anything again. Not my gratitude, my respect, my love… yes, I had loved him deeply.