A Woman In China

by Mary Gaunt

It was mounting up. I knew it would.

“But who will look after our things here?”

“One piecey 'cartee man,' stop,” said he airily. So it was all arranged and I was booked for the Nine Dragon Temple whether I liked it or not. Then there was the night to consider in this new inn, the safety of which Tuan had doubted. In my room were all my possessions, including the black box with the money in it, and I looked at the door and saw to my dismay that there was no fastening on the inside.

“I take care Missie,” said Tuan loftily, and then proceeded to instruct me in the precautions he had taken.

“Innkeeper man ask how long Missie stay and I say p'r'aps five day, p'r'aps ten day. No tell true.” No tell true indeed, for I had every intention of leaving next day even if I did have to go up to the mountain temple in the morning.

Again I looked at the rough planks of the door coming down to the earthen floor, and decided I would draw my heavy box across it, and I said so to Tuan.

But he was emphatic, “I take care Missie,” I wonder if he would have done so had there really been any danger. Then he bid me good night and, going out, drew the door to after him and proceeded to lock it on the outside! I presume he put the key in his pocket. Some papers have honoured me by referring to me as a “distinguished traveller,” and I have had hopes of being elected to the Royal Geographical Society! For a moment I thought of calling him back indignantly, and then I thought better of it. “A man thinks he knows,” says the Chinese proverb, “but a woman knows better.”

The window was frail and all across the room, and I knew I could break the lattice-work if I wanted to, so could the thief for that matter, so I slept peacefully, the sleep of the utterly weary, and the innkeeper proved an honest man after all.

And next day, after breakfast, just as the sun was rising, I started for the Nine Dragon Temple. The peak which it crowned stood out from the rest like a very acute triangle. They say the camera cannot lie, I only know I did not succeed in getting a photograph of that mountain that gave any idea of its steepness. Its slopes, faintly tinged with green and dotted with fir-trees, fell away like the sides of a house from the narrow top that was crowned with buildings. It was just one of the many holy mountains that are scattered over China, and it seemed to me, looking up, that nothing but a bird could reach it. But still I had to try. All the country was bathed in the golden rays of the sun as I climbed into the cart, and we made our way through a ruined city that must once have been very rich and prosperous. Only the poorest of the poor apparently lived among the ruins, and we went through a ruined gateway where no man watched now, and over half-tilled fields, to the supplementary temple at the bottom of the mountain.

Here Tuan blossomed forth wonderfully. Up till now he had only been my servant, a most important servant but still a servant, now he became, on a sudden, that much more important functionary, my interpreter.