One lovely summer evening, a few days before Chung"s holiday was to end, and his chief at the Emba.s.sy expected him back again, Marian and I had gone out for a stroll together, and in coming home happened to walk above the little arbour in the shrubbery by the upper path. A seat let into the hedge bank overhung the summer-house, and here we both sat down silently to rest after our walking. As we did so, we heard Chung"s voice in the arbour close below, so near and so clear that every word was quite distinctly audible.
"For the last time in England," he was saying, with a softly regretful cadence in his tone, as we came upon him.
"The _last_ time, Mr. Chung!" The other voice was Effie"s. "What on earth do you mean by that?"
"What I say, Miss Walters. I am recalled to China; I got the letters of recall the day before yesterday."
"The day before yesterday, and you never told us! Why didn"t you let us know before?"
"I did not know you would interest yourselves in my private affairs."
"Mr. Chung!" There was a deep air of reproach in Effie"s tone.
"Well, Miss Walters, that is not quite true. I ought not to have said it to friends so kind as you have all shown yourselves to be. No; my real reason was that I did not wish to grieve you unnecessarily, and even now I would not have done so, only----"
"Only----?"
At this moment I for my part felt we had heard too much. I blushed up to my eyes at the thought that we should have unwittingly played the spy upon these two innocent young people. I was just going to call out and rush down the little path to them; but as I made a slight movement forward, Marian held my wrist with an imploring gesture, and earnestly put her finger on my lips. I was overborne, and I regret to say I stopped and listened. Marian did not utter a word, but speaking rapidly on her fingers, as we all had learnt to do for poor Tom, she said impressively, "For G.o.d"s sake, not a sound. This is serious. We must and ought to hear it out." Marian is a very clever woman in these matters; and when she thinks anything a point of duty to poor Tom"s girl, I always give way to her implicitly. But I confess I didn"t like it.
"Only----?" Effie had said.
"Only I felt compelled to now. I could not leave without telling you how deeply I had appreciated all your kindness."
"But, Mr. Chung, tell me one thing," she asked earnestly; "why have they recalled you to Pekin?"
"I had rather not tell you."
"I insist."
"Because they are displeased with my foreign tastes and habits, which have been reported to them by some of my fellow-_attaches_."
"But, Mr. Chung, Uncle says there is no knowing what they will do to you. They may kill you on some absurd charge or other of witchcraft or something equally meaningless."
"I am afraid," he answered imperturbably, "that may be the case. I don"t mind at all on my own account--we Chinese are an apathetic race, you know--but I should be sorry to be a cause of grief to any of the dear friends I have made in England."
"Mr. Chung!" This time the tone was one of unspeakable horror.
"Don"t speak like that," Chung said quickly. "There is no use in taking trouble at interest. I may come to no harm; at any rate, it will not matter much to any one but myself. Now let us go back to the house. I ought not to have stopped here with you so long, and it is nearly dinner time."
"No," said Effie firmly; "we will not go back. I must understand more about this. There is plenty of time before dinner: and if not, dinner must wait."
"But, Miss Walters, I don"t think I ought to have brought you out here, and I am quite sure I ought not to stay any longer. Do return. Your Aunt will be annoyed."
"Bother Aunt! She is the best woman in the world, but I must hear all about this. Mr. Chung, why don"t you say you won"t go, and stay in England in spite of them?"
n.o.body ever disobeys Effie, and so Chung wavered visibly. "I will tell you why," he answered slowly; "because I cannot. I am a servant of the Chinese Government, and if they choose to recall me, I must go."
"But they couldn"t enforce their demand."
"Yes, they could. Your Government would give me up."
"But Mr. Chung, couldn"t you run away and hide for a while, and then come out again, and live like an Englishman?"
"No," he answered quietly; "it is quite impossible. A Chinaman couldn"t get work in England as a clerk or anything of that sort, and I have nothing of my own to live upon."
There was a silence of a few minutes. Both were evidently thinking it out. Effie broke the silence first.
"Oh, Mr Chung, do you think they will really put you to death?"
"I don"t think it; I know it."
"You know it?"
"Yes."
Again a silence, and this time Chung broke it first. "Miss Effie," he said, "one Chinaman more or less in the world does not matter much, and I shall never forgive myself for having been led to grieve you for a moment, even though this is the last time I shall be able to speak to you. But I see you are sorry for me, and now--Chinaman as I am, I must speak out--I can"t leave you without having told you all I feel. I am going to a terrible end, and I know it--so you will forgive me. We shall never meet again, so what I am going to say need never cause you any embarra.s.sment in future. That I am recalled does not much trouble me; that I am going to die does not much trouble me; but that I can never, could never possibly have called you my wife, troubles me and cuts me to the very quick. It is the deepest drop in my cup of humiliation."
"I knew it," said Effie, with wonderful composure.
"You knew it?"
"Yes, I knew it. I saw it from the second week you were here; and I liked you for it. But of course it was impossible, so there is nothing more to be said about it."
"Of course," said Chung. "Ah, that terrible _of course_! I feel it; you feel it; we all feel it; and yet what a horrible thing it is. I am so human in everything else, but there is that one impa.s.sable barrier between us, and I myself cannot fail to recognize it. I could not even wish you to feel that you could marry a Chinaman."
At that moment--for a moment only--I almost felt as if I could have said to Effie, "Take him!" but the thing was too impossible--a something within us rises against it--and I said nothing.
"So now," Chung continued, "I must go. We must both go back to the house. I have said more than I ought to have said, and I am ashamed of myself for having done so. Yet, in spite of the measureless gulf that parts us, I felt I could not return to China without having told you.
Will you forgive me?"
"I am glad you did," said Effie; "it will relieve you."
She stood a minute irresolute, and then she began again: "Mr. Chung, I am too horrified to know what I ought to do. I can"t grasp it and take it all in so quickly. If you had money of your own, would you be able to run away and live somehow?"
"I might possibly," Chung answered, "but not probably. A Chinaman, even if he wears European clothing, is too marked a person ever to escape.
The only chance would be by going to Mauritius or California, where I might get lost in the crowd."
"But, Mr. Chung, I have money of my own. What can I do? Help me, tell me. I can"t let a fellow-creature die for a mere prejudice of race and colour. If I were your wife it would be yours. Isn"t it my duty?"
"No," said Chung. "It is more sacrifice than any woman ought to make for any man. You like me, but that is all."
"If I shut my eyes and only heard you, I think I could love you."
"Miss Effie," said Chung suddenly, "this is wrong, very wrong of me. I have let my weakness overcome me. I won"t stop any longer. I have done what I ought not to have done, and I shall go this minute. Just once, before I go, shut your eyes and let me kiss the tips of your fingers.
Thank you. No, I will not stop," and without another word he was gone.
Marian and I stared at one another in blank horror. What on earth was to be done? All solutions were equally impossible. Even to meet Chung at dinner was terrible. We both knew in our heart of hearts that if Chung had been an Englishman, remaining in heart and soul the very self-same man he was, we would willingly have chosen him for Effie"s husband. But a Chinaman! Reason about the prejudice as you like, there it is, a thing not to be got over, and at bottom so real that even the very notion of getting over it is terribly repugnant to our natural instincts. On the other hand, was poor Chung, with his fine delicate feelings, his courteous manners, his cultivated intellect, his English chivalry, to go back among the savage semi-barbarians of Pekin, and to be put to death in Heaven knows what inhuman manner for the atrocious crime of having outstripped his race and nation? The thing was too awful to contemplate either way.