My Chinese Days

lly worried : Tsung-pau, of the agile legs: and lastly, Ah-tsi. The first day that I taught the English class I noticed her. She was tall and slender, with a straight-boned nose and pale, clearly marked lips. The nurses all wore the regular hat of Chinese women, a band of black satin or brocade, narrow across the forehead and curved out to cover the ears. With this hat, the pale oval of Ah-tsi's face was sharply outlined. She wore earrings, two loops of irregular pearls set in deep blue enamel. In class, and even at her work, she was inattentive and distrait, yet I could not bring myself to scold her because of an inexplicable quality in her smile. One evening after I had made rounds, I went as usual to inspect the nurses' quarters and count heads for the night. At once I noticed an air ofsubdued excitement. Ah-tsi was missing. I went to A-doo about it. " Do you know where Ah-tsi has gone ? " I asked. A-doo shook her head in scared silence. Tsung-pau volunteered in her quick, broken English : "Evening rice time, go out. Blue satin trousers wear." "Was she alone?" I probed. "Go alonee. Maybe, by-um-bly meet he," Tsung- pau answered. Further than that I could elicit no information. The nurses, in their blue trousers and jackets, looked like young boys excited over a secret plot. I left word that Ah-tsi should report to me as soon as she returned. I walked back slowly to the house. Each night in the short walk from the hospital, I felt plunged...