. -, . 
 
 BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 O 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 

 
SUE CHUG 
 
 BY 
 
 D. R. C. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 LUI SING," "THE FLIGHT OF AN ARROW,' 
 
 "POPPY PETALS," "CHUMS," 
 
 "FAITH-HOPE" 
 
 THE CORNHILL COMPANY 
 BOSTON 
 
PZs 
 
 Copyright, 1913, by 
 
 D. R. C. 
 
 1918, by 
 
 THE CORNHILL COMPANY 
 
: 
 
Ml LMV/ 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 jHE last orders had been given by 
 the shrill-voiced old Chinese wo 
 man. Sue Chuc had submissively 
 bowed low many times and 
 watched the departure of old Mai 
 den and beautiful Luck-do, the 
 latter a small- footed, gorgeously arrayed new ar 
 rival in the Quarter, as she hobbled on her three- 
 inch feet and leaned on Mai-den's arm. As the 
 door closed upon them, Sue's breath came more 
 regularly and her broad, flat face, that had naught 
 of beauty save its clear, dark, and most round and 
 un-Chinese eyes, lost the strained look it habitually 
 wore in the presence of her hard taskmistress, 
 Mai-den. 
 
 After a second she tiptoed to one of the two 
 windows looking out on the narrow street two 
 floors below and, opening the creaking window, 
 leaned perilously far out. Yes, there they were, 
 she could just discern the pearl-embroidered head 
 dress of Luck-do and, by the sudden stopping of 
 the passers-by, realize that the apparition of the 
 
2 SUE CHUC 
 
 bit of femininity in the dank, noisome street was 
 creating the usual sensation. 
 
 With a long sigh, Sue at last brought her body 
 back to equilibrium and safety and was turning 
 her attention to the first of the many duties laid 
 out for her, when a thought came to her, a 
 thought that in its awful boldness seemed surely 
 sent only of the devil, the particular devil sup 
 posed to be lying in wait for the faltering steps 
 of small slave girls, and she glanced hastily to 
 wards the niche where burned an incense stick 
 before a closed shrine. 
 
 Then, as the thought persisted and with it came 
 flashes of inspiration showing how easy, oh, how 
 very easy it would be to turn it into a reality, her 
 knees trembled and her hand instinctively sought 
 support for the weak body and found it in clutch 
 ing at a pile of clothing that hung upon a rack 
 close at hand. 
 
 Her eyes followed the direction of her hand 
 and rested upon a pale apple green coat with ap 
 plique of scrolls and wreaths of blossoms; upon 
 trousers of amber; on head-dress of embroidered 
 velvet one of the many suits tried on Luck-do 
 before one that quite suited her had been selected. 
 
 She held tightly to the folds whilst she let her 
 mind dwell upon that awful, heavenly thought 
 and a light of determination grew in the beauti- 
 
SUE CHUG 3 
 
 ful un-Chinese eyes. At last with a quick move 
 ment she crossed the room, gathered up her vari 
 ous utensils for cleaning and, opening the door 
 between the front room and the back, flung them 
 into the corner, not looking to see where they had 
 fallen, although there had come an ominous sound 
 of splintering glass. Then locking the door lead 
 ing into the hall she gathered together the para 
 phernalia of an elaborate toilet and began carry 
 ing out that mad, devil-sent idea. 
 
 Never since her babyhood had her body felt 
 such cool soft washes, such scented powders. 
 Never had the fine hair been so well oiled with 
 jasmine-flower oil whose fragrance made her 
 brain reel. One after the other she slipped on 
 the beautiful garments, until she stood completely 
 dressed, only her feet still unshod. The small 
 shoes of Luck-do were an impossibility; old Mai 
 den, to whom with stoutness and middle age, had 
 come freedom, wore shoes as much too large 
 as the others were small. 
 
 What, oh what should she do? As though 
 by having given way to that first impulse, a whole 
 legion of others had been encouraged to find rest 
 ing-place in her heart, a voice whispered, she 
 was quite certain that she heard it distinctly say: 
 "Take some money from the green bowl, send 
 Fun to Gen-dow's to buy you a pair, the pair you 
 
4 SUE CHUC 
 
 looked at in the window only last night as you 
 came home from market." 
 
 Pattering across the floor in stocking-feet, she 
 unlocked the door, looking to right and left saw 
 that the dark hall was empty, slipped into a pair 
 of straw sandals and stole softly to the room 
 opposite where she found Fun just recovering 
 from a more than usually comforting night of 
 poppy-engendered dreams. To him she rapidly 
 unfolded her plans. Would he help her, would 
 he go for the shoes? 
 
 Yes, Fun would help her; his clouded eyes 
 even looked admiration and awe at her and the 
 bread she had cast so often upon the waters came 
 back to her now. Had she not given him of her 
 own not always too plentiful meals many times 
 and oft, that he might not have to choose be 
 tween poppy dreams and sheer starvation? Yes, 
 he would get those slippers. 
 
 She repeated the directions to him again and, in 
 breathless anxiety, awaited his return. A half-hour 
 went by. The seconds seemed hours and the min 
 utes eternities until she heard his stumbling steps. 
 He had the slippers and something else, a great 
 bundle which he explained to her was clothes that 
 he had pawned to a friend many moons ago and 
 borrowed back for the day, for he was going to 
 join her in her day's frolic and must do her proud. 
 
SUE CHUC 5 
 
 She looked at him in amazement he had been 
 washed and shaved, his thick hair freshly braided 
 and, although the face was wasted and waxen, it 
 was not the old face of Fun, but of a man who 
 might have been his son. 
 
 He smiled his kindly smile at her and told her 
 to go and get ready, that he would join her in a 
 very short time and they would walk to the corner 
 and take the Clay street car. 
 
 In the three years since her landing in San 
 Francisco she had been just once outside of the 
 Quarter where her home was and always had she 
 been haunted by the memory of that wonderful 
 day. 
 
 As she and Fun came out into the sunlight and 
 stood for a moment waiting for the car, she 
 glanced at him. Was it, could it be Fun? Yes, 
 that smile could belong to none other, it had 
 cheered her too often through the long months of 
 those three years when her spirit and body alike 
 seemed on the point of utter rebellion. But she 
 had thought him an old man, why as much as 
 thirty-five or forty, and he was years younger. She 
 felt shy and sat quiet as the car started up the long 
 hill. 
 
 Fun glanced at her several times and at last 
 breaking the silence pointed out to her the points 
 of interest, for he was a son of the Golden West, 
 
6 SUE CHUC 
 
 sadly fallen from his high estate, to be sure, but 
 in the intervals when the poppy dreams did not 
 call he was very proud of his City and State. 
 
 She knew he had been to the big school and was 
 looked upon as a learned man in the Quarter, but 
 of the reasons for his downfall and of the utter 
 extinction of ambition and desire she knew naught. 
 
 Many times they "transferred" and finally they 
 arrived at the beach, bought food and, sitting down 
 where they were protected from the wind and 
 could look over the sparkling sunlit waters, they 
 had their luncheon. 
 
 "Sue, how came you to do this?" he asked. 
 
 And she told him how, as she had looked at the 
 disappearing head-dress of Luck-do, she had been 
 filled with despair and loneliness then the 
 thought and its execution. Was it very awful? 
 Yes, she knew it was, but they could do no more 
 than kill her, and at any rate for one day she 
 would have lived. 
 
 "When do you expect them back?" he asked. 
 
 "To-morrow. It is to the city across the water 
 they have gone. Mai-den has taken Luck-do to 
 show her to a very rich man who wants a small- 
 footed wife. She is beautiful !" she added warmly. 
 
 "You like her?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I love her." 
 
 "And Mai-den?" 
 
SUE CHUC 7 
 
 She winced and the great eyes dimmed. 
 
 He took the small, roughened hand in his and 
 looked at the palm, looked long, and at last com 
 pared the two hands and glanced up into her face, 
 keenest interest written on his own. 
 
 "What do you know, Sue, of yourself?" 
 
 "Not very much," she told him, "only that when 
 I was a baby my mother and father died in the 
 great sickness and an aunt of Mai-den's took me 
 and brought me up as her servant. But I can re 
 member something, Fun," 
 
 "Yes what?" 
 
 "I can remember a lady like the ones we saw on 
 the car just now who used to put me on her knees 
 and play with me. Mai says it was one of the 
 Mission ladies at home." 
 
 "Do you know how old you are, Sue?" 
 
 "Sixteen, Mai says." 
 
 "You are such a tiny thing I thought you were 
 not over twelve, if that." 
 
 "Fun, they say you speak English as well as 
 the English born and that you speak some other 
 tongues, too do you?" 
 
 "Yes, but I am foreign-born. I have never been 
 in China. Once I thought I should go back there 
 when I was a man, and teach. I was going to 
 be a physician." 
 
 "What made you give it up, Fun?" 
 
8 SUE CHUC 
 
 He rose from the sand without answering, 
 flicked off the crumbs, and holding out his hand 
 said, with the familiar expression: 
 
 "Come, little one, we will go to the Park and 
 then down to the city and you shall see the big 
 foreign stores, then we will go to dinner and to 
 the theatre. You shall have one royal time if you 
 never have another." 
 
 As he spoke he grew suddenly gray, beads of 
 perspiration sprang to his forehead and he wiped 
 them away. 
 
 Sue noticed and recognized the symptoms. 
 "You're going to be sick if you don't take it," she 
 said, nodding wisely. 
 
 He laughed ruefully and took a pellet from a 
 small box and swallowed it. As they strolled to 
 the car he said : 
 
 "Have you ever used it, Sue?" 
 
 "No, I tried it once and it made me sick and 
 I shall never try it again." 
 
 "Wish I could say the same," he answered. 
 
 They went through the Museum, then newly es 
 tablished in the Park, went downtown and through 
 the big stores, and, as the day ended, up into the 
 restaurant of renown in the Quarter and afterward 
 to the theatre. At one o'clock, tired to the point 
 of exhaustion, but happy, Sue pressed Fun's hand 
 in good-night and unlocked her own door. 
 
SUE CHUC 9 
 
 It was nearly morning before she had the rooms 
 straightened, everything that she had worn, folded 
 and put back into place, and laid herself, too tired 
 for sleep, on the folded quilts that made her bed, 
 wondering and wondering how she should pay back 
 those three dollars she had spent for the shoes 
 and what she should do with the shoes ! 
 
 She had decided to pawn the shoes and to beg 
 the woman on the floor above to let her earn 
 money embroidering for her when Mai was away, 
 which happened often now, when at last, as the 
 sun rose, her heavy lids closed and she slept. 
 
 Fun, whose name in full was Ah-day-Fun, 
 stripped off his clothes, replaced them with the old 
 ones, made the package compact and, putting it 
 under his arm, went down the stairs and into the 
 street. 
 
 Instinctively he turned towards the accustomed 
 place and at the entrance to a particularly black 
 and evil-smelling alley he stopped a second to listen 
 to voices that came from the room above the en 
 trance and, in one of those queer, kaleidoscopic 
 memory flashes, he saw a rugged-faced, kindly- 
 eyed man and heard the resonant voice saying: 
 
 u My boy, I am pleased with you. I believe in 
 a great future for you ; of all my pupils, you have 
 
io SUE CHUC 
 
 shown most the possession of the qualities that 
 make for success. I approve of the choice of life- 
 work you have made. Good-bye, and may the 
 dear God bless you." 
 
 Fun shivered and for a perceptible second hes 
 itated, then shuffled under the archway and the 
 black shadows hid him. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 |HE following day Mai-den returned 
 alone and, in her pleasure at the 
 bargain she had made and in her 
 absorption in her plans for getting 
 over one, two, perhaps three girls 
 by fall, she noticed no change in 
 the small servant, saw not the sudden palings and 
 flushings, the tremors of the thin body and the 
 apprehension in the big eyes, even made no 
 comment upon the broken glass fruit jar; and 
 when her several cronies came in to congratulate 
 her upon her success, served tea and cakes and 
 sweets as usual. 
 
 One pair of sharp black eyes, however, rested 
 more than once upon the face of little Sue and 
 each time with a look of interest. 
 
 "Have you heard," she said, speaking loudly, 
 u that there is a new face in the Quarter?" 
 
 "Yes, Ah-day-Fun was seen with a girl whose 
 embroidered coat looked as though the fairies had 
 worked it; whose trousers, as though the bees had 
 woven of their honey to make the stuff; whose 
 head-band was milky with the pearls upon it." 
 
12 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Ah-day-Fun? You joke!" 
 
 "Nay, 'tis true they were seen on the corner 
 to take a car going heavenward, and at Chan-Yep's 
 eating, later." 
 
 Mai-den shrugged fat shoulders. "Once it 
 might have been, but he is far gone now in the 
 poppy's clutch. 'Tis someone's dream; there are 
 those who dream, waking, ofttimes," and she 
 looked significantly at the other with a half smile 
 of contempt. 
 
 The sharp black eyes dulled and the face was 
 masklike, but Mai-den then and there lost her 
 chance forever to know the story of Sue's day. 
 
 Sue had heard both remarks, had stood frozen 
 with horror and fear, until, daring to glance at 
 the other woman after Mai's contemptuous reply, 
 she saw the eyes narrow and the face settle into 
 inexpressiveness. Then in a moment she knew 
 that she was safe. 
 
 As the women left, whilst Mai was busy giving 
 directions to one of the others, Chul-fen spoke 
 rapidly and softly to Sue. 
 
 "Come to me, child, when next you are free." 
 
 She had pawned the slippers, had put back the 
 dollar obtained and was prayerfully waiting a 
 chance to earn the other two. Two months had 
 flown since her outing. She had not seen Fun in 
 all that time. Often had her thoughts dwelt on 
 
SUE CHUC 13 
 
 the blissful day, often had she dared to dream 
 dreams and see visions wherein such days figured; 
 always was there a little catch at her heart when 
 she thought of Fun, of the sad, kind smile and 
 of his gentleness to her. A dim inkling of his 
 tragedy came to her and a strong desire to help 
 him. Often and often had she stolen across the 
 narrow hallway to see if he had returned, always 
 to meet with disappointment until, one afternoon 
 nine weeks since she had seen him, she opened his 
 door and found him sitting at the table by the 
 window, writing. 
 
 She ran to him crying out joyfully and he turned 
 to meet her with eagerness, then, as she saw him 
 plainly, she hesitated, stopped and stood astounded. 
 
 "No, Sue, it is I in the flesh, not a ghost.' 7 
 
 "Have have you been sick?" she faltered, 
 hardly daring to believe him, as he asserted, in the 
 flesh. 
 
 "Yes, Sue, body, mind, and soul." His voice 
 was weak but vibrant, and under the waxen pallor 
 showed a something of renewal, that intangible 
 thing that one sees in the face of one who has 
 been at the very gates of death and has not passed 
 through. She noticed that he was clean shaven 
 and dressed in fresh clothes. Instinctively she 
 glanced down at her own limp and rusty black coat 
 and trousers, the servant's uniform. 
 
I 4 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Have you missed me, Sue did Mai-den find 
 out anything ?" 
 
 "Yes, I have missed you. No, Mai-den hasn't 
 discovered anything, but Chul-fen has; I'm not 
 afraid of her, though, she is kind. But, Fun, tell 
 me tell me what has happened to you I can stay 
 a long time, Mai is gone out and my work is 
 done." 
 
 "Sit down here, Sue, where I can see you," and 
 he placed her on a chair by the window. 
 
 "Sue, can you understand what it means to be 
 born again?" 
 
 Sue nodded, "Yes." That was one of her pet 
 dreams and many a lonely hour had she spent 
 making plans as to the conditions that wonderful 
 re-birth was to place her in. 
 
 "Can you?" his tone held wonder. Yes, those 
 great eyes held faint memories of re-birth, memor 
 ies so faint that they came only as barely formu 
 lated desire now. 
 
 "Well, Sue, I have been born again. I think 
 there is nothing left of the old Fun you knew, ex 
 cept his affection for the kind little friend who 
 gave so generously to him" his voice faltered and 
 his eyes looked off into space whilst Sue held her 
 breath. 
 
 "Sue, you remember asking me out on the beach 
 that day if what they said of me was true if I 
 
SUE CHUC 15 
 
 had gone to the big school and had intended to 
 make much of my life?" 
 
 Sue nodded, "Yes," she remembered very well. 
 
 "Well, the man who had, once in that time so 
 long ago, felt confidence in my future and in my 
 ability to do a big and fine work in the world, has 
 brought me up from the very gates of death, has 
 once more said to me, 'Fun, I trust you to do 
 that work we had planned/ And Sue, Sue" the 
 voice broke but the tone held gladness "I feel 
 that I shall not disappoint him." 
 
 Sue's eyes had filled and the queer catch at her 
 heart had come again. Fun going to do the work 
 he why that meant she would see him no more, 
 the room across the hall would be vacant, the kind 
 smile that had been her one bit of sunshine would 
 vanish from her life and here a feeling of utter 
 desolation took possession of her and putting her 
 head down on her bowed arms, she wept. 
 
 "Sue, Sue, what is it are you sorry that I am 
 going away? Why, child, do not weep so de 
 spairingly, I am not going without you." 
 
 Sue's sobs ceased, she raised a tear flooded face 
 with eyes like mist-covered stars, and sat motion 
 less, almost breathless. 
 
 "Yes, Sue, I am going to buy you from Mai 
 den, send you to school, and in a few years you 
 shall come to China with me and we will take up 
 the work together. I will be father, mother, and 
 
1 6 SUE CHUC 
 
 brother to you, and you will be everything in life 
 to me, outside of my work." 
 
 "But tell me, tell me it all, Fun." 
 
 He took a stool and brought it up to the window 
 whose panes, undisturbed of the dust of years, 
 softened the light of the hot California sun which, 
 on this third floor of the house, so far above the 
 narrow tunnel of the street, fell in undeflected 
 beams. His thin hands, finely shaped and now 
 scrupulously clean, rested on the table-edge and 
 little Sue, at sight of them, put her own small red 
 and roughened ones under the piece of sacking 
 that hung straight from the pins that held it to 
 the folds of her gown and served as apron. The 
 man, sensitive to impressions and with the quick 
 ness of such natures, guessed the reason of her 
 motion and said: 
 
 "Let me see the hands, Sue." 
 
 She shook her head and the great eyes dimmed. 
 
 "Yes," he insisted. 
 
 Slowly she drew them forth and more slowly ex 
 tended them. He took them in his and turned 
 them palms upward, looking carefully at them as 
 he had done that day on the beach. 
 
 "Do do you see anything there?" she queried. 
 
 After a moment's silence he spoke, asking, "Sue, 
 do you know that your father and mother were 
 Chinese?" 
 
SUE CHUC 17 
 
 A flush stole into her pale cheeks. "Oh oh, do 
 you think I am foreign?" 
 
 "I don't know, child, but I think you have for 
 eign blood in your veins." 
 
 A tide of emotion swept over her, the slender 
 body trembled, and in one burst of vehemence she 
 poured forth her hatred, disgust, and fear of the 
 race that, up to that moment, she had thought to 
 be her own. 
 
 Seeing the storm his questions had raised, he 
 thought it well to let it run its course and only 
 when she had cleared her heart of its burden of 
 stored-up emotion and the very spring of her 
 speech had run dry did he speak; then, as she 
 put her head down on the dusty table and wept 
 unrestrainedly, he said: 
 
 "We both, I think, Sue, have the white streak" 
 then there came to him a memory from out the 
 years, a young, eager voice in passionate pleading, 
 saying, "But, fellers, I tell you Fun is white! 
 white clear through, if he is a Chinaman. There 
 is not a bit of 'yellow streak' in him I know!" 
 and he smiled sadly. The years since seemed to 
 have proved his youthful champion in the wrong, 
 but the past was the past, to-day was at hand 
 with promises of a to-morrow when that "he's all 
 white, I tell you !" might be a truth. 
 
 Sue's sobs had ceased and she was fumbling 
 
1 8 SUE CHUC 
 
 for the bit of paper that served as handkerchief, 
 when he spoke: 
 
 "The night I said good-bye to you, Sue, I went 
 to take back the clothes to my friend and I intended 
 to do as I was in the habit of doing have a few 
 pipes before I came home. You know where the 
 place is?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "As I went under the archway I heard voices 
 in the room above and one of them was so like 
 that of a man I once knew that I stopped a mo 
 ment and almost gave up going further almost," 
 he added dryly, "not quite, and there is once that 
 a good impulse almost thwarted at its birth, bore 
 good fruit; strange, that " he mused, then, with 
 a second's further hesitation, continued. 
 
 "That night a man died in you know the 
 place, and a woman killed him. Yes, a white 
 woman. The man was Chinese. There was a 
 disturbance and little Joo-fan ran to tell us the 
 police were coming. 
 
 "The woman had fainted after she had realized 
 what she had done, and lay on the floor. The 
 other there ran and got away, but I could not 
 leave her so and well, I stayed ; that was white, 
 Sue?" he asked. She did not quite understand the 
 question, but she recognized a desire for confirma 
 tion in the tone of it, and nodded. 
 
SUE CHUC 19 
 
 He gave a long sigh "Yes, that was white. 
 
 "Well, the police came and sent the dead body 
 of the man away and sent us, that white woman 
 and me, to the jail. I had sworn that I knew noth 
 ing about the facts beyond the one of having been 
 awakened by the noise after the murder was done. 
 The woman was not suspected and it was supposed 
 that the murderer got away amongst the crowd 
 that had fled. Anyway, a dead Chinaman more 
 or less what of it? Especially as there was no 
 money to be got by discovering his murderer and 
 much hush money to be lost by undue exertion 
 bringing the eye of that awful public to bear upon 
 the Quarter. So the woman and I were let out, 
 no evidence to point to our being anything but 
 victims of circumstances. The woman had not 
 said a word from first to last, only shivered and 
 shaken and wept." 
 
 "Where is she?" Sue asked. Something in her 
 voice made him look at her intently. 
 
 "She is now in a hospital being treated for the 
 cocaine and morphine habit, and, Sue, I've just 
 come out of one." 
 
 She nodded, "Yes, you have not had anything 
 for a long time. Are you going to smoke to-day?" 
 
 "No, nor to-morrow nor ever little one, do 
 you hear? Never, never!" and his voice had the 
 
20 SUE CHUC 
 
 note of victory she had noticed in it before, 
 through all of its weakness the vibrant note. 
 
 "Did you stop for her?" she asked. 
 
 "For her? the white woman! no, child, she is 
 nothing to me. I had never seen her before that 
 night, I may never see her again." 
 
 Just the faintest perceptible sigh lifted the sack 
 ing stretched across Sue's chest and she softly with 
 drew her hands which he had held as he talked. 
 
 He started "My story is not very clear, is it 
 Sue?" 
 
 "Shall I make you some tea?" she asked, noting 
 his increase of pallor. "Mai is out for a long time; 
 I can do it easily." 
 
 "Will you?" 
 
 She busied herself going out for some lighted 
 charcoal for the firebox, filling the kettle, getting 
 out the chipped teapot and cups and washing them. 
 She made the tea strong and served it to him 
 steaming, saw that he drank several cups, and then 
 again took her seat at the table. 
 
 It was noticeable that in everything she did 
 there was an intelligence shown, a something of 
 distinction in the grace of her movements, the in 
 describable shade of manner that distinguished her 
 and made her noticed with a sort of distrust by 
 her countrywomen. So surely does the essence of 
 difference affect the feeling of those we contact. 
 
SUE CHUG 21 
 
 "Now you can tell me some more," she said 
 at last, and he took up his story. 
 
 "The two days and nights I was in jail, I could 
 not get the sound of my old friend's voice out of 
 my ears and when I got out I went up to the old 
 address. I had not seen or heard of him in years 
 and found he had only that day returned from 
 China, where he had been on a mission for the 
 Government. 
 
 "He saw me immediately, busy as he was, and 
 and took me home and stayed with me day and 
 night for three weeks. Sometime, Sue, I will 
 tell you of the things we talked of, what he told 
 me, and how he helped me to win out from hell. 
 
 "He has given me money to get my equipment 
 and after I have found a school for you I shall 
 go to New York and prepare for my work in 
 China. I told him of you and he said he would 
 find means to put you under Miss Cameron's care 
 if I could not succeed in buying you from Mai 
 den. 
 
 "You can buy me, cheap" Sue said, her voice 
 trembling. "I heard her tell Luck-do that I was 
 so ugly she couldn't ever expect to make anything 
 out of me and that she did not like me around 
 anyway, she had to burn too many joss sticks to 
 turn off the evil eye ; it was a bother." 
 
 "Ugly! you!" he said. 
 
22 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Child, child I am not making fun!" he had 
 sensed her fear of his ridicule "only it came as a 
 surprise to me that you were called ugly, your 
 eyes are so wonderful one thinks only of them." 
 
 "When will you speak to Mai? Oh, do you 
 mean it may I learn the foreign language well? 
 I can speak it a little you know, and shall I have 
 books like Chan-dow's children who go to the 
 foreign school, and shall I wear foreign clothes, 
 with a hat?" 
 
 "Yes, you shall do all of that, and if you study 
 hard and if you want greatly to help me, you will 
 later go to college and, when you have finished, 
 join me and we will go to China and teach and 
 heal, and who knows, Sue, maybe some day we 
 can prove that we are all white no yellow 
 streak." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 AI-DEN had proved more difficult 
 to manage than was to be supposed 
 under the circumstances and when 
 her demands for money amounted 
 to blackmail, Fun, at the end of his 
 patience and money, threatened. 
 From a chance word dropped here, repeated there, 
 it was generally believed in the Quarter, that Sue 
 was the child of one of Mai's nieces and a for 
 eigner, born in one of the treaty ports of China, 
 and that old Mai knew more of the matter than 
 she pretended to know, and one day, after a 
 conference with her he said, pulling a long bow 
 at a possible target: 
 
 "And, Mai-den, how if I can prove that you 
 have no right to Sue at all, that you have kept as 
 a slave to do your meanest work, one to whom 
 you owe your very existence?" And in the state 
 of abject terror and shivering fear that the woman 
 fell into, he read that his random arrow had struck, 
 and the old quotation, "As the flight of an arrow 
 from the bow of destiny," came to his mind. 
 
24 SUE CHUC 
 
 The woman, with the instant perception that 
 was characteristic of her, saw that she had be 
 trayed herself and, too, at what was a chance shot, 
 and was prepared to make a good fight until Fun 
 succeeded in convincing her that it would be to 
 her advantage to accept his terms: that, whilst, 
 he had shot at a chance, still he was certain that 
 if he wished to make it his object, he could defi 
 nitely discover what it was she sought to hide, 
 and then well, then she would have lost both 
 girl and money. 
 
 At last, with a shrug, Mai accepted his terms 
 and Sue was put under the care of kind Miss Cam 
 eron until he could take her to the school in Phil 
 adelphia, that his friend recommended. And one 
 day in the late fall they two, so strangely brought 
 together, left the Golden West and started on the 
 journey that was to be the beginning of the new 
 life. 
 
 People looked kindly at the young girl dressed 
 in the simple, well-chosen clothes, whose immense 
 eyes looked out of a pale face; eyes so filled with 
 interest and yet dreamy and carrying in their vel 
 vet depths such worlds of unfathomable longing. 
 
 Fun wore his clothes as though clothes of no 
 stranger cut had ever clothed him. His black hair, 
 cut short and brushed staight up from the broad 
 forehead, told no tale of braided queue and partly 
 
SUE CHUG 25 
 
 shaven scalp and the suggestion of foreignness 
 they both gave might have meant that of one of 
 several nations, but not amongst them, China. 
 
 Fun's English, the English of the American 
 born and bred, gave no hint, and Sue's hesitating 
 but correct speech held no taint of the Chinese 
 tongue. In fact, her progress had been phenom 
 enal and Miss Cameron had mourned loudly the 
 
 loss of so eager and studious a pupil. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Five years had passed, and one day in Novem 
 ber Sue, still slender and little taller, but with the 
 soft curves that denoted her development from lit 
 tle girl to young woman, the one time pallor now 
 superseded by a faint color that at the moment 
 was unusually bright, her profuse soft black hair 
 piled high upon the small classic head, her eyes 
 shining under their long and heavy lashes, walked 
 into the room where Fun awaited her coming, and 
 the two met after a separation lasting nearly four 
 years, for Fun had decided upon Germany for 
 his post-graduate course and the vacations had 
 been but opportunities for further work and 
 harder study. 
 
 The tall man and the little girl looked almost 
 solemnly at each other, taking* in the visible 
 changes the years had wrought. Then with the 
 old tender smile and gesture her heart cried out 
 
26 SUE CHUC 
 
 in eager recognition of, he drew her to him and 
 kissed her. 
 
 They talked and talked; there seemed endless 
 subjects to be discussed, and the shadows length 
 ened, and a maid came in and lit the gas and finally 
 the Principal herself came in and laughingly asked 
 them if they knew that the dinner hour was at 
 hand. 
 
 "Can I not take my sister to dinner with me?" 
 Fun asked. 
 
 "Surely, surely. Sue dear, run and put your 
 things on and bundle up warm, it is bitterly cold," 
 and while she sped to do their bidding Miss Elliot, 
 who knew their story and felt its charm and un- 
 usualness, asked: 
 
 "What do you think of the result of our train 
 ing, Mr. Fun?" 
 
 "Ah," he said, "Miss Elliot, she is what I knew 
 she would be, given the chance." 
 
 "Do you remain here long?" 
 
 "No, I have but a short fortnight's holiday. 
 
 There has suddenly opened a post in , and I 
 
 shall sail from San Francisco in a month from 
 to-day. My sister will begin her nurse's training 
 in the spring and when she has finished her course, 
 if she still feels that it is a vocation, not merely an 
 avocation there is a great difference, you know" 
 smiling at her "she will join me." 
 
SUE CHUC 27 
 
 "What a perfect dear the man is," she thought, 
 "makes one think of the whole list of saints." 
 
 "Yes, all of the difference possible, Mr. Fun. 
 We are in despair at losing Sue, you know." 
 
 He brightened. 
 
 "Yes, how good that sounds, it means that she 
 is lovable; to me she is that to a degree, but that 
 her schoolfellows and teachers feel it means that 
 her. power for helpfulness in her work will be 
 great. I suppose there is absolutely no quality so 
 needed in the kind of work we want to do. 
 
 "I shall ask you to let me have Sue for the fort 
 night I remain in New York, Miss Elliot, and to 
 morrow I will take her with me upon my return 
 there." 
 
 "Yes, of course, the dear child, it will be good 
 for her, but, I fear, will make the separation even 
 harder." 
 
 "Ah, that well, the years have a way of 
 
 flying, and in three years she will come to me." 
 
 "Is this a large city you are going to, Mr. 
 Fun?" 
 
 "Yes, one of the several great interior cities of 
 China. The field will be a big one. My chance 
 has come through the decision of Doctor Ray 
 to take a two years' vacation, and I hope to so 
 'make good,' as we say here, that when the doctor 
 returns I will be kept as her assistant." 
 
28 SUE CHUC 
 
 "You are modest, Mr. Fun, to be willing to 
 take a subordinate position, and that under a 
 
 woman." 
 
 "But such a woman," he said reverently. "What 
 an opportunity for me, I appreciate it," he said 
 simply, and again Miss Elliot felt her heart warm 
 toward him. 
 
 As they sat at dinner that night, Sue suddenly 
 laughed, a merry, thoroughly girlish laugh, that 
 made Fun smile in response. 
 
 "Oh, Fun, who would think that only five years 
 have gone by since we picnicked on the sand dunes 
 in front of the Life Saving Station that day; I in 
 my borrowed gorgeousness ! Do you know" 
 more seriously -"I never was able to put back 
 into the jug that two dollars I took from Mai for 
 the slippers." 
 
 Fun laughed somewhat grimly as he said: "I 
 think, Sue, that you are not in debt to old Mai 
 den. If the truth were known it is the other way 
 around. I am going to make it my business to 
 look up that small personification of evilness when 
 I get back to San Francisco and try again to find 
 out something of your story, for story there is and 
 she knows it." 
 
 "Do you think so? I should so like to be cer 
 tain that I am at least half white." 
 
 "All white, Sue," he laughed, quoting from his 
 
SUE CHUC 29 
 
 old boyhood days; "all white if you are a China 
 man. But, yes, I know how you feel and you're 
 right to want to know absolutely; such knowledge 
 gives one something to hold on to in the bad 
 hours." At her look of questioning he added: 
 
 "There always come 'bad hours,* dear, and es 
 pecially to those of us who have mixed blood. 
 You see, there are two warring elements to be 
 reckoned with: the generations of hard and fast 
 prejudices; the moral quirks of two strong heredi 
 ties to battle with." 
 
 She leaned her head on her hand meditatively. 
 
 "That does account for things, Fun; things that 
 have always puzzled me in myself, 'shadows of 
 potentialities' some one calls them, and I only 
 wonder I never stumbled across an explanation 
 before." 
 
 Fun noticed the small hands, now white and 
 soft, with that exquisite texture of flesh that be 
 longs to the Oriental as by birthright, and said: 
 "Put out your right hand, palm up, Sue. No, no 
 one will notice, and if they do they will only think 
 we are of the order of the people 'palmistry 
 mad.' " 
 
 As he bent over her hand she said: 
 
 "It's not fair, you know; this makes the third 
 time since we knew each other that you have looked 
 at my palm and told me no single thing of what 
 
3 o SUE CHUC 
 
 you have seen. I hope you won't acquire that 
 sort of 4 I have read your secret' look that palmists 
 get," she teased. 
 
 He tapped the rosy palm lightly and answered : 
 "Take back your hand, for I won't yet tell what 
 I see in it." 
 
 "Do you really see things, Fun?" her eyes 
 twinkling. 
 
 "Yes, I really see things, potentialities, for in 
 stance." 
 
 "Oh" and she hastily withdrew the hand and 
 rubbed its palm on the edge of the table. 
 
 "Will you ever tell me what you saw, or will 
 you wait until something happens and then tell me 
 you knew it would all along?" 
 
 He laughed. "What a tease the small person 
 has become ! I'm so delighted, Sue, that you don't 
 take life too seriously. Coming over on the 
 steamer there was a young woman who nearly 
 drove me to suicide because she did take life too 
 seriously, and she waylaid me in the hollows be 
 tween the ventilators on deck to discuss the condi 
 tion of her soul daily; to give me her opinion of 
 the mismanagement of the mission stations in 
 China and her determination to effect wholesale re 
 form upon her arrival there. 
 
 "I hope she will get properly put in her place 
 when she does get there. A certain amount of 
 
SUE CHUG 31 
 
 seriousness is necessary, but not the kind that 
 feels obliged to look the part all the time. I think 
 it, like all emotions, must be a strong inward im 
 pulse, not labeled like a certain celebrated beauty 
 powder, 'for external use only/ " 
 
 "Good! I should just hate to have to look 
 sanctimonious. That's one reason Fm glad we're 
 going to be only medicos, not missionaries." 
 
 "Oh medicos!" 
 
 "Yes, you do not really think I'm going to be 
 content to be a nurse, do you?" 
 
 At Fun's look of surprise she laughed outright. 
 "Why, Fun, I could pass the second year's exams 
 now, right now I've been studying for eighteen 
 months." 
 
 "And you never told me !" 
 
 "No, I wanted to surprise you." 
 
 "You have!" 
 
 "Aren't you glad?" 
 
 "Yes, I think I am, but I'll have to rearrange 
 all my plans and look out for some one to fill 
 that position of head nurse in the hospital I 
 thought you would grow into." 
 
 "I won't be too proud to be head nurse, only 
 I would not be contented to have only the nurse? s 
 training, you know." 
 
 He looked at her with increased interest and 
 smiled. "All white," he thought. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 iAI-DEN'S eyes held a frightened 
 look as she answered the knock at 
 her door and saw who her guest 
 was. 
 
 "You " she faltered. 
 
 "Yes, I, Mai-den," Fun an- 
 swered, as he entered the familiar room and 
 glanced around. 
 
 Mai called a shrill direction to the servant, who 
 came at her cry, and closed the doors of both 
 rooms. Mai-den pushed forward a chair, saying, 
 in her usual voice: 
 
 "Mai-den feels deeply honored that her poor 
 home should find such favor in your eyes that 
 you should come to it upon your return." 
 
 Fun had not accepted the chair, and stood 
 with his tall figure drawn to its height and looked 
 down on the woman with grave, observing eyes, 
 and did not answer her flowery speech in the 
 fashion of its kind, but in the direct tone of his 
 adopted tongue. 
 
 "You know what I have come for, Mai-den, 
 
SUE CHUC 33 
 
 and you will give me, in fewest words for my 
 time is limited an exact account of Sue's parent 
 age." 
 
 His eyes held hers, and her gaze, after a second 
 of determined resistance, dropped to the floor, and 
 a wave of emotion passed over her full, smooth 
 face, then left it impassive. 
 
 His tone of command, gentle as it was the 
 power back of the command that she felt and 
 quailed before, she tried to resist. Again she 
 lifted her eyes to the steady, grave ones bent upon 
 her, whose pupils had contracted to a point, which 
 seemed to her excited and troubled fancy to emit 
 sparks and caused her involuntarily to glance to 
 ward the niche with its Joss and burning stick of 
 incense as though for protection. 
 
 Again the quiet, level voice, insistent, command 
 ing, asked the question. 
 
 With a gesture of the hands, expressive of her 
 acceptance of the inevitable, she sat down on the 
 chair nearest her as though glad of its sustaining 
 prop, and after a full moment of silence, during 
 which time the man's eyes remained upon her, she 
 began, her voice much lower than usual. 
 
 "Sue Chuc was born in Soo-Chwang. Her 
 mother was the daughter of a half-caste girl who 
 had for father the master of a Russian warship. 
 Her father was" here she paused "an Ameri- 
 
34 SUE CHUC 
 
 can. They both died when Sue was a baby, in the 
 great Black Plague year." 
 
 "Most of that I knew. What was the name of 
 her father, and what his business? Have you any 
 papers or articles of any kind to prove what you 
 affirm?" 
 
 She rose and went to a strong brass-bound chest 
 of drawers and, opening a compartment, drew 
 out from under a heap of articles a small box, 
 which she brought to the table, and, opening, 
 turned upside down on the cover. 
 
 There was a package of some half dozen let 
 ters, a gold locket and a chain, a photograph 
 carefully wrapped in many folds of soft paper, 
 and a bulky envelope, sealed and addressed. This 
 last she took from the heap and held toward him. 
 
 As his eyes rested on the address, a flash of color 
 crossed his face, and his firm lips trembled. 
 
 "Powers that be!" he thought, "what a wonder 
 ful thing is destiny!" 
 
 He laid it aside and held out his hand for the 
 package of letters which she handed him. He 
 read them in sequence, and his face darkened as 
 he read. When he had finished the last he stood 
 thinking deeply for a while and Mai-den moist 
 ened her lips and once or twice made as though 
 to speak. 
 
 He looked toward the wrapped square, and she 
 
SUE CHUG 35 
 
 took off its wrappers and passed it to him. 
 
 He looked earnestly at the pictured face, at that 
 youthful face now grown so familiar in its devel 
 oped strength and ripened manhood. That face 
 so well known through all the nation by its oft- 
 repeated likeness in newspaper and magazine. 
 The face of a man whose power was felt and ac 
 knowledged in every land, and whose name was 
 one to conjure with. 
 
 The locket held a woman's picture, young, beau 
 tiful, with the beauty so often seen where there 
 is an admixture of race, and he traced a resem 
 blance to Sue in it, as in the other. 
 
 "You lied to me," he said; "the father did not 
 die. Why did you ?" he asked. 
 
 "I loved him," she answered simply, after a 
 pause, her face working tremulously. "I was 
 young then and she won him from me. I was 
 glad when she died. Him I nursed back to health 
 and he left. I have never seen him since." 
 
 "But the child, Sue; he knew of her?" 
 
 "He was told she had died with her mother." 
 
 The woman's composure broke down, and she 
 poured out a torrent of words. All of the work 
 ings of her heart she laid bare. 
 
 "How you hated the child," he said. 
 
 "I hated her I hated her!" she assented, bring 
 ing down her doubled fist upon the table. 
 
g6 SUE CHUG 
 
 "It is fate, I saw it coming, I knew I could not 
 avert it. I hoped she might die, but I could not 
 kill her. I was but little older than her mother. 
 I was pretty, I loved him, and she won him from 
 me." It was as though that fixed idea had been 
 the mainspring of her whole life. There was in 
 her tone bitterest resentment, a questioning of the 
 why of destiny and fate. 
 
 Fun gathered up the various articles, placed 
 them in the inner pocket of his coat, and, taking 
 his pocketbook, unfolded and handed her a bank 
 bill. 
 
 She pushed it aside contemptuously. 
 
 "I am rich, I do not need your money. I spoke 
 because I dared not longer keep silence when your 
 eyes looked at me so. What will you do with the 
 knowledge?" 
 
 "That I have not decided." 
 
 "Will you tell the the man?" she faltered. 
 
 "I do not know; Sue shall decide." 
 
 "He will be here soon," she said. "He has 
 often been here. I never would go to look at him 
 as he passed, as did the others; but I know of his 
 life he is married and has other children. Will 
 he be glad that you have served as the servant of 
 fate for him?" 
 v "I do not know," he answered. 
 
 "The servant of fate; yes, that is what we each 
 
SUE CHUG 37 
 
 arc in our time/' he thought. " 'Tis a tangle, the 
 good and the bad threads woven so closely into 
 the life pattern." 
 
 He took up his hat and bowing formally to the 
 woman went out of the room and down the stairs 
 with no glance even toward the room on the op 
 posite side of the dark and narrow hall, but his 
 feet instinctively avoided the treacherous places 
 in the steps that had often been pitfalls to his 
 stumbling tread in the days gone, the days of the 
 poppy dreams. 
 
 u San Francisco, December 3Oth. 
 "Mv DEAR SUE: 
 
 "My steamer is sailing to-morrow, everything 
 is packed and ready, and if it were not that I dread 
 putting so long a distance between us, I should be 
 glad. My feeling for San Francisco is of such" a 
 mixed nature that I do /lot even know whether 
 it is more of relief than sorrow at again leaving 
 it, this time possibly for good. 
 
 "Now, little sister, will you give me permission 
 to keep silent upon the information I obtained 
 from Mai-den, beyond the fact that it is as I 
 thought: your father is of Occidental blood. 
 
 "Can you trust me to judge in this matter, and 
 feel confidence absolute in my integrity of purpose 
 
3 8 SUE CHUC 
 
 when I say I feel that, for the present, if not for 
 all time, the knowledge I possess of your birth it 
 is best to keep silent upon. Search your heart; the 
 decision rests with you. I can only tell you that 
 I personally believe it for the best to leave the 
 knowledge unused. Should you, however, feel me 
 at fault, tell me frankly and I will set in motion 
 the machinery necessary to accomplish your de 
 sire. Frankly I fear, dear, that if you decide to 
 know, our dreams of a life work together will fade 
 into the stuff that dreams are made of. I do not 
 need to tell you that fact, however, has not any 
 slightest effect upon my belief that for you and 
 others it is best you should do nothing with the 
 knowledge that has come to me, and that is yours 
 at your demand. 
 
 "You will be glad to know that, whatever your 
 decision, I shall believe you have made it with the 
 fullest right intention. You and I, Sue, need never 
 after these years doubt each other. So good-by, 
 little sister; write me often, tell me all that makes 
 up your life, and I will send you full accounts of 
 myself and the work. 
 
 "Yours always in service, 
 
 "FUN." 
 
CHAPTER V, 
 
 HEN Fun's letter reached Sue she 
 was in the first throes of physical 
 revolt over life as it presented it 
 self to her, a newcomer in the great 
 hospital where she had gone to'take 
 up the course in nursing, having 
 flatly refused to wait until the spring, as had been 
 arranged. 
 
 All of those long months between seemed to 
 her as separating her just so much longer from 
 the day when, as a graduate, she could join Fun 
 in China, and, although she had known, as we 
 know of the things we read of, that the course 
 would begin with the humblest duties, the most 
 menial service, still, after the years of life at school 
 and its atmosphere of delicate ease for the physical, 
 these new duties, that somehow seemed not to 
 have much to do with the real knowledge she was 
 there to acquire, were hard for her, and she had 
 to grit her teeth and bend her will to them and dis 
 tinctly refuse to be moved by the inward voice of 
 revolt, to remember that all of the nurses, yea, 
 even the competent, rather awe-inspiring Miss 
 
40 SUE CHUG 
 
 Johns, the head nurse, must have gone through the 
 identical training before the next step toward her 
 now high estate had been reached. 
 
 So that, after reading the letter and scenting 
 a possible interesting denouement and here her 
 vivid imagination took fire and blazed up into ac 
 tivity she found it at first not easy to accept the 
 almost casual mention of these stupendous facts 
 of her life. But her faith in the big, kind brother, 
 and the knowledge of his clear-sightedness came 
 to her aid and helped her to make her answer 
 what she felt he would wish. 
 
 She wrote it late that afternoon during her off 
 hour and felt, as she did it, that the years be 
 tween the present and that looked-toward future 
 had in some uncanny way doubled in length. 
 
 "New York, January i2th. 
 "DEAR FUN: 
 
 "Yes, of course I will do exactly what you think 
 best, and, too, do it in the fullest understanding 
 and belief in your knowing what is best. I don't 
 mind telling you, however, that I did go through 
 a bad quarter of an hour after the fact had pene 
 trated my brain that there was a mystery and that 
 you said I might know it for the asking, and that 
 if I asked it would mean possibly our dear plans 
 upset. But when I looked the thing in the face, 
 and the realization came that nothing could make 
 
SUE CHUC 41 
 
 up to me for the loss of the fulfilment of our pre 
 cious plans, I for once and all gave it up. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I patted myself on the back, even felt 
 of my shoulder-blades to see if I could detect the 
 presence of the pin feathers of those most beaute 
 ous wings I felt certain must be sprouting. No 
 sign, so I put the letter in my pocket and went back 
 to washing out the sinks, cleaning the awful uten 
 sils, and generally ruining the hands you so inter 
 estedly studied. Even had a sort of feeling once 
 or twice that the lovely years between the Alley 
 days with Mai-den and the present day here had 
 been a dream and only the overpowering smells 
 here gave me the consoling feeling that it was 
 real ; for fearfully as the Quarter smelled in those 
 old days, the scents there were as of Araby, com 
 pared to these. 
 
 "No, distinctly I do not like it, this work, but I'll 
 do it and well, because it's part of the price I must 
 pay, and I'm always going to pay for what I get 
 in life. 
 
 "But now really, Fun dear, why is it necessary 
 for us who come here to study nursing to waste 
 time doing the lowest coolie work? If it's in the 
 way of discipline I'll say very well if it's been 
 proven it's worth it! If it's in the way of harden 
 ing our stomachs to awfulness, well, that too is all 
 right, but if it's just plain because it once began 
 
42 SUE CHUG 
 
 for reasons now lost sight of and is kept up for 
 reasons not explained I want to put myself on 
 record as objecting! 
 
 "Now please don't think I am complaining or 
 sorry I decided to do this, I'm not, you know, 
 either of these things. 
 
 "There is an awfully jolly, clever girl here, who 
 came in when I did and who feels as I do about 
 this first work. We exchange confidences over 
 our, eh 'pots and pans.' We are, I think, go 
 ing to be friends. She has the very nicest brown 
 eyes, excepting yours, I ever saw, and perfect 
 mops of wavy dark red hair. She's a big girl and 
 already the others have dubbed us 'one and a 
 half.' All of the nurses seem a nice sort and a 
 few stand out as startlingly superior. 
 
 "I never heard so much slang in my life ! You 
 see it was not indulged in at Miss Elliot's, not 
 being considered 'elegant,' but I am so amused 
 and delighted with it; why it has, or is an entire 
 language and I find myself beginning to drop into 
 it with an ease that speaks well for my linguistic 
 abilities. Wonder how it comes that I pick up 
 languages so readily; is it because Chinese is so 
 terrific others are easy in comparison? 
 
 "You told me not to fail to let you know how we 
 were lodged and fed. Well don't worry, it's Par 
 adise to what the Alley was in San Francisco, and 
 
SUE CHUC 43 
 
 we will let it go at that for the present. Will do as 
 you suggest each week when I have my playtime' 
 and now don't worry. I'm as strong as a moun 
 tain pony if I am no bigger than a minute, which 
 is what my nice girl, Stella Marks, says of me, 
 amongst other things. 
 
 "Yes, I'll write often and keep you au fait of my 
 daily life, and please, dear, dear Fun, when you 
 write tell me all of the little things. Men don't 
 ever seem to realize how necessary the knowledge 
 of the little things in life is, and how it makes time 
 and distance more bearable. Tell me how your 
 quarters are furnished, tell me all about that won 
 derful woman doctor whose place you are going 
 to fill but, come to think of it, I will see her, 
 won't I ? > if you keep your promise of telling 
 her of me and asking her to find time to come and 
 see me when she gets to New York. 
 
 "After you get settled I'll write out lists of ques 
 tions for you to answer, then I won't feel I'm miss 
 ing shades. Yes, I'm happy, my 'thumbs are up' 
 as I write this, or one is, so the roof won't fall on 
 me, but anyway three years is not, not so dread 
 fully long. No, that is not a tear-splash on the 
 paper, it's only the place where the Recording 
 Angel put his finger for a second. 
 
 "Your SUE." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 
 iHE tall woman looked searchingly 
 into the eyes of the man, just level 
 with her own, and, after a second, 
 nodded as though satisfied and 
 held out her hand cordially to him. 
 "More glad than I can tell, Dr. 
 Fun, that you are you" laughing at the sound 
 of her cryptic utterance. "To be frank, I had 
 feared you might be well, different. I shall, I 
 think, now, be able to leave my work with the 
 feeling that it won't suffer from my absence. I knew, 
 from your record and from sources various that 
 you were capable scientifically, you know, but there 
 is so much more needed here than just that it is 
 a huge field," she added. 
 
 "Yes, a huge field and one brave, big-hearted, 
 talented woman has sown the seeds that are pro 
 mising so great a harvest," Fun thought. What 
 he said was the thing that showed his acceptance 
 of the responsibility and his whole-souled intention 
 to do his part. 
 
 "I have arranged for you to have my old 
 rooms; there are advantages that more than over- 
 
SUE CHUC 45 
 
 weigh the disadvantages ; for instance, they are out 
 of the city yet sufficiently near to make it easy to 
 reach your patients who are not in the hospital, 
 and being what you are in nature and training, 
 more suitable than any to be got in the city." 
 
 Fun smiled, his thoughts had flown to the room 
 in the Alley. 
 
 "If you will first go over the Hospital with me, 
 we will then go up to see them. You can take up 
 your permanent residence there on my departure. 
 In the meantime you will be the guest of the 
 Grants." 
 
 The inspection finished, the introductions to the 
 native doctors and nurses over with, they were 
 again in the small, bright, bare office. 
 
 "Well?" the Doctor asked. 
 
 "Oh, more than well, Dr. Ray, you have one 
 of the best equipped and best systematized hos 
 pitals I have seen. How did you accomplish it?" 
 
 She smiled grimly. "By sheer determination 
 and with the help of that blessed old saint, Dr. 
 Ah-Fing. You will meet him to-night, he is here 
 on business. Heavens! you should have seen the 
 place when I came to it. I'm not afraid or mock- 
 modest, I've worked hard, lived hard, and I feel 
 I have the right to be glad and proud, and I've a 
 bad habit of showing somewhat frankly my feel 
 ings," she added whimsically. 
 
46 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Now you are in possession of all the necessary 
 information, and the thousand and one things that 
 come up you will be better able to cope with if I 
 do not insist upon details. I'll, however, reiterate 
 what I said a few hours ago, "I'm glad you are 
 you ! Shall we go up to the house, now ? I want 
 you to meet the Grants and see your rooms to 
 be." 
 
 They stepped out of the chairs at the steps lead 
 ing up to the big rambling stone and cement house 
 that crowned the hill. 
 
 "It has the appearance of a mediaeval fortress 
 with an adornment of German wedding-cake frost- 
 ing." 
 
 She laughed, "Yes, hasn't it? The adornment, 
 however, is really for comfort. All of those bal 
 conies and verandahs are God-sends in this climate 
 and, as you can imagine, the view is wonderful. 
 Your rooms face the East-South, so they are 
 bright in winter and in shadow during the months 
 one craves shadow as one would the greatest good 
 the Gods could send." 
 
 Fun looked at her curiously, "You stand the cli 
 mate well, Doctor, this is your first vacation for 
 many years, I hear." 
 
 "Yes, I am a perfect salamander and I'm too 
 busy most times to think of myself. Here we are, 
 did the climb wind you? No, I see not. There 
 
SUE CHUC 47 
 
 is a good chair grade but it's much longer, and I 
 never, except when absolutely fagged, can bring 
 myself to be carried up, always feel that the poor 
 wretches who have to do the work must have 
 hate in their hearts for me," she laughed. "You 
 see, being a woman I do not have to be logical. 
 That's one of the few, very few, advantages the 
 sex gives us, so I deliberately refrain from being 
 carried, although I know I am taking away from 
 them needed money and" with another laugh 
 "I salve my conscience and win back their lik 
 ing by paying them just the same, and walking." 
 
 Fun laughed outright he found this woman 
 delightful, and, added to his great admiration 
 and respect, there sprang into being, full-grown, 
 a liking. 
 
 "Dr. Ah-Fing, this is my successor, Dr. Fun, 
 and I am delighted to be able to assure you that 
 I do not hate him." 
 
 The stately old man rose from his chair, his 
 fine aesthetic face bright with kindliness, and 
 stretched forth a shapely, slender hand. His 
 eyes looked intently into Dr. Fun's, and were met 
 by a glance strangely like. With a mutual feel 
 ing of liking, the hands touched, clasped, and 
 dropped, but over the Doctor's face had come 
 a look of wonder as she saw the men face to 
 face and recognized the remarkable resemblance. 
 
48 SUE CHUG 
 
 She had several times during the hours since 
 meeting Fun been struck with the feeling of hav 
 ing seen him before, and put it down to one of 
 the queer, subconscious memories that come to us 
 all; but seeing the men together had startled her, 
 and she wondered if they saw it, and was about 
 to ask when there flashed across her mind the 
 sentence of a letter: "You are going to be im 
 mensely struck with the man who is coming out 
 to you. Seldom have I met so forceful a per 
 sonality, such great gifts, and so gentle a na 
 ture. 
 
 "There is a story of course. He was stolen 
 from his family when only a baby and brought 
 up as the son of a man who was well known and 
 well placed, was given every advantage, and was 
 on the road to making his mark when the man 
 he thought his father died, suddenly, with but 
 time to tell him the bare facts, and among his 
 effects no single clue could be found to make 
 the outworking of the puzzle possible. Then 
 there were some years that I cannot tell you of, 
 possibly he may some time (most people, I no 
 tice, do tell you things), and then a return to his 
 life of study, and the result of that you know." 
 
 The Doctor's heart beat hard; she knew the sad 
 and tragic history of Dr. Ah-Fing, and, seeing 
 this marvelous likeness between the two men and 
 
SUE CHUC 49 
 
 dovetailing the two stories, she wondered if by 
 chance this might be one of the rare cases where 
 the fates were feeling it right to unravel puzzles. 
 During the meal, which was served almost im 
 mediately, she watched them and marveled more 
 and more that one or both did not see this thing. 
 Why, even the timbre of the voices was alike. 
 No, apparently, they only felt the mutual at 
 traction; but how they drew each other, how they 
 interested each other! 
 
 Presently the conversation passed from the 
 work and its significance from the scientific point 
 of view to the purely human and glanced on to 
 the more personal side. "Dr. Ray tells me that 
 you are a native of the United States," Dr. Ah- 
 Fing said; "born and brought up there. Are 
 your parents dead?" 
 
 Fun's face flushed slightly. "Yes, born and 
 brought up there. Of my parents I know noth 
 ing," he added. 
 
 "Ah, I see, a foundling," the older man's eyes 
 clouded and he sighed. "The world seems very, 
 very full of such cases, and not so often, I fear, 
 do the little ones find a friend as kind and provi 
 dent for their future as you. You were given 
 great advantages." 
 
 Fun bowed. For his life he could not have 
 carried on the talk. All of the bitterness his heart 
 
50 SUE CHUC 
 
 had once held and which he thought gone utterly 
 flooded it anew, and the other man did not press 
 the subject, much to Dr. Ray's regret, for she 
 was longing for some word to be spoken that 
 would make it possible for her to ask some perti 
 nent questions. 
 
 The meal finished, they went into the Doctor's 
 sitting room and settled down for the evening's 
 talk on matters relating only to the work, for there 
 was to be scant time allowed them for confer 
 ence, as the Doctor must leave within the week 
 on her long journey to Shanghai, from whence 
 she would sail to America. 
 
 Late that night Dr. Ray wrote to Madame 
 Jay-San, Ah-Fing's sister, and very right hand 
 in all of his great work. 
 
 "February iyth. 
 "My DEAR MADAME JAY-SAN: 
 
 "Your brother tells me I am not to have the 
 pleasure of seeing you to say good-by, as you 
 will, by the time I reach Shanghai, have left for 
 Peking. I think I have seldom been so regret 
 ful over anything, for two reasons: one because 
 I wanted to see you greatly, you kindest and best 
 of friends; one because I wanted to tell you of 
 my successor, Dr. Fun, who has arrived and 
 ask you of many things. First, let me assure you 
 that I am pleased beyond words with him. Had 
 
SUE CHUG 51 
 
 feared, as I wrote you, that he might be merely 
 an immensely clever, scientific young surgeon. I 
 find him to be all that, but likewise possessing 
 exactly requisite qualities for this place, and shall 
 leave my beloved work in his hands with perfect 
 confidence. You are doubtless smiling that kind 
 but quizzical smile I know so well, and thinking 
 I have jumped to my conclusion with remarkable 
 quickness; but you do believe, do you not, in the 
 intuitive sense given us women, and in my ability 
 to draw right conclusions from what seem on the 
 surface slight premises? I know that you do 
 from something you said to me at the time of 
 that sad and tragic time here years ago. 
 
 "Am greatly interested in this young man. I 
 doubt if he is much over thirty, although he 
 looks, in moments when he is not speaking, much 
 older. He is a very big man, big as is our 
 dear Dr. Ah-Fing, with a straightness and erect- 
 ness of carriage. He has rather wonderful eyes, 
 with the trick of pupil that we physicians know 
 the meaning of that contraction and expansion 
 one very occasionally sees. He has allowed his 
 hair to grow and is at present wearing it in na 
 tive fashion by the aid of an intricate interwoven 
 false plait a necessity, you know, here where 
 anything resembling a turning toward foreign 
 fashions is at the moment resented. Has fine, 
 
52 SUE CHUC 
 
 long, shapely hands, the true surgeon's hands, 
 supple, light, quick of touch; very magnificent 
 teeth, noticeably perfect. I wonder if you catch 
 the portrait? Manner quiet, very quiet; voice 
 well, his voice is peculiar, and one likes it. 
 
 "Now I know you are laughing, but I frankly 
 admit I have taken to him greatly, and, too, his 
 history, the little I know of it, interests me 
 strangely. It seems he was stolen, when a tiny 
 baby, from his parents and brought up in igno 
 rance of the fact until the death of the man he 
 had believed his father, and then he was told 
 only the bare facts, and to this day knows noth 
 ing more. I do wish he had arrived earlier or 
 that I could stop over a steamer; I so want to 
 know more than the meager details I am telling 
 you. Perhaps when you come down here you 
 can draw him out; if you do, please, dear Ma-- 
 dame Jay, write the details to me. I some way 
 have the feeling that I am going to be defrauded 
 of a big sensation. 
 
 "Many thanks for the beautiful gown you 
 sent me. Were those lovely blossoms worked by 
 you? It's too much, you know; I do not feel that 
 I ought to accept so precious a thing, and of 
 course it is absolutely absurd for me to intend 
 wearing it a grizzled-haired, middle-aged per 
 son, with a frame like a wooden scaffold, but I 
 
SUE CHUC 53 
 
 am going to accept it, and I am going to wear 
 it and give a thought of deep affection and grati 
 tude to its donor. 
 
 "Yes, of course, I will write you; and when 
 the two years are finished I'll hurry home (it is 
 that to me, you know). 
 
 "With all my heart, yours, 
 "ELLEN RAY." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 jUN took up the duties of his new 
 position as he did all things with 
 direct earnestness of purpose. The 
 few changes that he decided were 
 necessary he brought about so grad 
 ually that the fact that they were 
 changes, not evolvements, did not occur to the 
 eyes jealously, if in friendliness, watching him. 
 His tact was perfect, and the clean-hearted whole- 
 someness of his big nature won him quickly a place 
 in the hearts of his subordinates and patients. His 
 days were filled from getting up to lying down, 
 and many nights when he felt the necessity to see 
 late some patient whose condition was critical he 
 spent on the sofa in his office at the hospital. 
 
 One of Dr. Ray's hopes was eventually to ex 
 terminate a certain disease that, at her coming 
 to the field many years before, had been a scourge, 
 and that she had demonstrated could be controlled 
 and often eradicated by set reforms of diet and 
 condition, and Dr. Fun found a great interest 
 in watching the results of the treatment. It was 
 
SUE CHUG 55 
 
 already May, and the first wave of the summer 
 heat at hand when he realized that he had been 
 overdoing and was feeling strangely weak, and 
 that he now accomplished with an effort what 
 he had at the start found all in the day's work. 
 He had about decided to ask help from Dr. Ah- 
 Fing, when he learned that the Doctor's sister, 
 Madame Jay-San, was expected, and determined 
 to wait and talk with her. 
 
 He had a feeling almost of shame at this early 
 breakdown, and could not understand it. Sev 
 eral times when his strength seemed feeble and 
 he knew that he must be clear of brain and steady 
 of hand for some delicate operation he had been 
 strongly tempted to resort to opium, but his judg 
 ment told him, as did his experience, how slender 
 a reed that was to lean upon. 
 
 In the early part of June, as the coolies set 
 down the chair in front of the door of the house 
 upon the hill for he could not walk up those 
 steps now in the heat and after the fatigue of a 
 hard day a woman came to meet him, and as 
 he looked into the kind and still lovely face and 
 felt the firm clasp of the soft hands he knew it 
 must be the Doctor's sister, and stood smiling 
 at her. 
 
 She had paled visibly as she looked at him and 
 held his hands as though she needed support for 
 
56 SUE CHUC 
 
 a second; then, noticing his evident exhaustion, 
 she said: "Ah, Dr. Fun, it's well this old woman 
 arrived when she did; you have been doing what 
 so many do: utterly putting aside the fact that 
 no one can come to China and before he has 
 given himself a chance to get acclimated work 
 night and day. Come into my sitting room and 
 let me give you tea and scold you." 
 
 Her eyes had never left his face, and held a 
 look of wonder and tenderness, but her voice 
 was merely friendly with the deep friendliness of 
 the woman who has the mother nature strongly 
 implanted, and to whom no outlet but that of 
 service to others, not her own, has come. Dr. 
 Fun sank down on the chair she pointed out to 
 him and laughingly apologized for his so ap 
 parent enjoyment of it. 
 
 "You must not think me a weakling, you know. 
 Really I am possessed of a marvelous constitu 
 tion; but it is, as you say, a case of not taking 
 account of little new conditions of all kinds and 
 a too great impatience to get results. But why 
 are you looking at me so closely and strangely? 
 Am I in any way different from what you 
 thought?" smiling. 
 
 She laughed. "Was I staring? That is a lam 
 entable habit of mine they tell me I indulge in 
 when for the first time I meet a stranger. Now 
 
SUE CHUC 57 
 
 let me order our tea. You like it at this hour, 
 and in the English fashion, yes?" As they sipped 
 their tea she said: "You are far more English 
 than American in your evident liking of the brew. 
 It is always an amusement to me when I see an 
 American man attempting afternoon tea; it's so 
 evidently a thing to be done, if it must be, and 
 got through with. We who have had the Eng 
 lish training get the charm of the hour, the slight 
 stimulus of the drink, and enjoy that feeling of 
 general well contentedness that a friend of mine 
 always speaks of as 'the tea-hour spirit.' ' 
 
 He looked up suddenly. "How strange, that 
 is the identical phrase that a friend of mine uses 
 and she is the greatest tea fiend I know, and one 
 of the most original and delightful women." 
 
 "Of course, original and delightful, as adjec 
 tives applied to women, are not exactly new, but 
 they do certainly fit the woman I have in mind; 
 yes, Theodocia Melvin is that and a great many 
 other things as well." 
 
 He put his cup down. "Theodocia Melvin!" 
 he said. "Is it she you mean, Mrs. Melvin of 
 Paris?" 
 
 "How delightful so you know 'Docia'?" 
 Madame Jay-San answered, her eyes twinkling. 
 "Yes, of Paris, of Dublin, New York, St. Peters 
 burg, and any and every other place on the top 
 
58 SUE CHUC 
 
 of this globe of ours. Tell me, how and where 
 did you meet her?" 
 
 The Doctor hesitated for the fraction of a 
 second, then answered: "Well, I saw her rather 
 recently in Berlin, just before my return to Amer 
 ica last fall." 
 
 Madame Jay had noticed his hesitation and 
 drawn several quick conclusions, but she only 
 said: "We are to thank the gods, you and I and 
 all of Theodocia's friends, for her, aren't we? 
 She has been to me the source of endless amuse 
 ment, interest, and delight since the day I met 
 her. No, I do not see her often, but we occa 
 sionally write and through mutual friends I hear 
 of her often. Did she know that you were to 
 come here? But no, of course she could not, as 
 it was not even thought of at that time. 
 
 "Let me give you another cup. Are you eating 
 at the right times and of the right food?" And 
 at his conscience-stricken look she shook her fin 
 ger at him. "No? You stand convicted without 
 a word. Truly you 'superior beings' are the veri 
 est children in many things. I suppose it does 
 not present itself to you that if you get ill you 
 will be placing us all in a dreadful state of bother; 
 that you may even spoil that dear Doctor's vaca 
 tion and bring her back before she has had it, 
 in fact. 
 
SUE CHUC 59 
 
 "Now," counting upon her fingers, "first 
 meals at any hour that is convenient; second, any 
 kind of meals; third, working day and night; 
 fourth, new climate and water you don't drink 
 the water ?" she demanded sharply. "No, that's 
 well. And last, but not least, you have no one 
 here with whom you can talk over things. I've 
 always claimed that was the weak point where 
 a European was alone at the head of any native 
 work; oh, yes, you count as European, you are 
 only native in birth, so you have had loneliness 
 added to the others." 
 
 He put his head back and laughed, heartily, 
 but he felt better for the expression of kind and 
 almost motherly interest she had shown him. The 
 soft voice with its beautiful English intonation 
 was such a joy to his ears, tortured with the sounds 
 of the language spoken in the Province, notori 
 ously the harshest and most grating of the endless 
 dialects. Every motion he made, every tone of 
 his voice, was to her a shock, so like, so exactly 
 like were they to her brother's. As she looked 
 at him she could have believed herself back thirty- 
 four years and enacting very much such a scene 
 with her brother, who had come to her looking 
 as this man did, and her heart beat so strongly 
 that she feared it would be noticed. Surely it 
 could not be, the fates did play tricks, life was 
 
60 SUE CHUC 
 
 a succession of surprises, but this thing could not 
 be it was impossible, improbable; and yet she 
 came back to the present with a start to hear him 
 say: 
 
 "But I fear this interests you little. My sis 
 ter is " 
 
 "Yes, tell me of your sister; is she much 
 younger than you? Oh, yes, I remember now; 
 it is of the little girl you adopted and whom you 
 call sister that you are telling me. Indeed I am 
 interested." 
 
 His eyes lit up as he took out a letter from his 
 coat pocket and from between the folds took a 
 tiny photograph and held it toward her. Madame 
 Jay looked at it long, with a growing expression 
 of pleasure. 
 
 "That is a rare type, is it not? And what won 
 derful, marvelous eyes! Always has that been 
 attractive to me a face so possessed, as it were, 
 by the beauty of the eyes that one simply 
 never thinks of any other feature. Would I 
 be seeming impertinent or unduly inquisitive if 
 I asked you to read me some of the letter? To 
 my mind one gains a better idea of another by 
 hearing a letter, almost, than by seeing a por 
 trait, especially if that letter was written only 
 for the eyes of one person and that not the in 
 quisitive one." 
 
SUE CHUC 6 1 
 
 "I should ask to read it all to you, if you 
 would like to hear it." And unfolding the sheet 
 he began: 
 
 "New York, May ist. 
 "FuN DEAR: 
 
 "You will have seen from the letter sent you 
 that your small sister is getting on in her work, 
 and yesterday I was promoted, owing in part to 
 the sudden indisposition of one of the assistants, 
 to the exalted post of scullery-maid-in-ordinary 
 to his kingship, Dr. Martin, and won a glance 
 of approval from him because, at a critical mo 
 ment, I kept my head and attended strictly to 
 business during an operation. 
 
 "He did not and shall not know that after 
 ward, in the privacy of the slop room, I was 
 most ignominiously seasick, and then, to add to 
 my misdemeanor, had a mild fit of 'whoops' 
 the hospital slang for hysterics here so this 
 morning Miss Johns called me into her sanctum 
 and told me that until the other girl she's thirty- 
 five if she's a day had recovered, I could take 
 her place. After my return they meaning the 
 gods of the machine here would consider my 
 permanent promotion, etc., etc. 
 
 "She did look at me pretty sharply, and the 
 knowledge that my pale cheeks and tell-tale eyes 
 might give me away helped me to get some color 
 
62 SUE CHUC 
 
 into my face, and nothing was said about them. 
 She is not at all a bad sort, and if only she would 
 drop that air of superiority would be, I think, real 
 nice and sort of human; and she is a perfect won 
 der as a disciplinarian. 
 
 "Was so disappointed that your Dr. Ray did 
 not look me up; but she had to go dashing over 
 to London on an unexpected matter of business, 
 and wrote me a nice letter explaining, and added 
 that she hoped to see me on her return. 
 
 "Two of the girls from Miss Elliot's came to 
 see me, and I think they were almost horrified 
 out of their clothes to find me in my uniform and 
 see the condition of my hands, which are rather 
 sights. They tried hard not to seem condescend 
 ing, and I breathed a sigh of relief when they 
 left; whole continents lie between us now; we 
 simply do not speak the same language any more. 
 But I'm not sorry we don't my life is going to 
 be fuller and richer than theirs, and I'm going 
 to get closer to the real things in life than they 
 ever can. 
 
 "You remember my telling you of the jolly girl 
 with the dark red hair? We have been great 
 chums, and, as we have the same hours and half- 
 day off, we have great times. Last half-day we 
 spent in the park, and it did seem so good to get 
 away from the sights and smells at the hospital. 
 
SUE CHUC 63 
 
 Would you not think that, after the alley days, 
 little matters of smells would be indifferent to 
 me? I believe I asked you that before and, by 
 the way, you know you are shockingly derelict in 
 answering my questions. That's always the way 
 I find it with my letter-writing: one asks a ques 
 tion in all earnestness, the question may be even 
 of a most interesting nature to the one asking, and 
 written at a white heat; the one getting the letter 
 calmly ignores it, if to him it makes no appeal or 
 carries no particular suggestion of 'hurry-up.' I'm 
 planning to live with my few friends within a 
 half-hour's journey some day, and to see them 
 always at tea time then no more letters. 
 
 "I am studying hard and devoting almost 
 every spare moment to the work I've started on. 
 Very occasionally I play truant and get out an 
 old favorite, but I am so anxious to go through 
 with flying colors, you know. 
 
 "I've a secret to tell you soon, maybe by Fall; 
 be sure you get up a great interest in it between 
 now and then. 
 
 "Was so much amused recently to learn the 
 'why' of most of the girls here having taken up 
 nursing. It was one of our rest times, and there 
 were seven or eight girls in the room, all more 
 or less talking at once, when one of them turned 
 to me and asked me if I did not think Dr. Dane, 
 
64 SUE CHUC 
 
 one of the internes, had lovely eyes, and I truth 
 fully answered that I'd never noticed; whereupon 
 there was an absolute hush and they all looked at 
 me as though I had suddenly become some 
 stranger, and the one who had asked the question 
 said: 'Look here, Sue; what did you want to 
 learn nursing for?' Why, to nurse, of course' 
 they all giggled. 'Why, did not the rest of 
 you?' 
 
 " 'Not on your tin-type !' said the first one 
 she's the one who introduces all of the slang. 'I 
 am learning because it gives a girl who has to 
 earn her living a chance to meet some nice men. 
 Why, lots of the nurses have married rich men.' 
 
 "Suppose I looked blank, for they laughed at 
 at me ; but what a funny attitude, Fun ! Do all 
 girls think only of getting married to rich men? 
 You would have been amused if you could have 
 heard the tales they told of this one and that, 
 who had met the fairy prince under every condi 
 tion from typhoid to mumps, nursed him into 
 strength of body and apparent feebleness of mind, 
 and married him; and the real heroine in the eyes 
 of all is, it seems now, as they put it, riding in her 
 own carriage with coachman and footman, hav 
 ing, as nearly as I can make out, broken up a 
 home to do it. A case of sick man, tired out de 
 voted wife ordered to take a much-needed rest, 
 
SUE CHUC 65 
 
 young fresh-complexioned nurse. I heard Miss 
 Johns say in regard to the case that any woman 
 was a fool to let her husband be nursed by an 
 other woman unless she was on hand most of 
 the time, and if she did do so she ought to lose 
 him. 
 
 * 'Horrid, all that, Fun; don't you think? Lis 
 tening to the chatter here, one would, if one let 
 oneself believe it, become very disillusioned, and 
 the talk about the doctors and their feminine pa 
 tients ! it makes me sick. Must one become cold 
 and hard, and unbelieving and distrustful, Fun? 
 The price seems to me a big one to pay for the 
 acquisition of a little knowledge. Is that the life- 
 lesson we have to learn? What's the good of 
 anything, if it is? I felt pretty blue after that 
 talk, then I resolutely put the entire thing aside. 
 After all, what did it matter to me what a num 
 ber of silly girls said? I had my life to live and 
 knew how I intended to live it; and it had noth 
 ing whatever to do with rich men patients or 
 deceived wives. 
 
 "I am so grateful, Fun dear, that I am free 
 to write you my perplexities; it's such an escape 
 valve; if you see me getting changed for the 
 worse, please bring me up with a round turn, 
 won't you? 
 
 "Please do not worry about the food here; did 
 
66 SUE CHUC 
 
 not mean to let the cat out of the bag about its 
 occasional queerness, and I am in excellent health; 
 but, if I ever have the say about the commissariat 
 of a hospital, there are several things that will be 
 different, I can assure you; all of which, coming 
 from the one time slave of old Mai-den, is vastly 
 funny, don't you think? 
 
 "In the Fall my chum and I are going to hear 
 all of the good music we can and to see all of the 
 lovely pictures. We have planned enough to fill 
 every day of the week, so, as we have only one 
 lone afternoon of a week, we are going to draw 
 straws to see how it shall be arranged. You 
 would like her, Fun; she is our kind and yet, al 
 though she is in deadly earnest, she fairly bub 
 bles over with fun, and many's the time we go 
 into gales of laughter over the little funny things 
 that crop up, to keep from weeping and raging 
 over all of the misery; it's choice, you know. 
 
 "I had almost forgotten to scold you for not 
 writing me details more fully, but I seem to know 
 that you are disturbed and busy. Not feeling ill, 
 are you? I do not dare let myself get to think 
 ing on that possibility or I might do something 
 rash, so if you don't want me to do the rash thing, 
 which would mean go right away out to you, bet 
 ter write me more fully. And, by the way, you 
 never described the furnishing of your rooms or 
 
SUE CHUC 67 
 
 told me more about the family you live with upon 
 that hill top than those first casual lines in the 
 second letter. Can't say you shirked on the hos 
 pital, though; I know that like a book down to 
 the supply on hand, at your last writing, of the 
 gauze; but I want some of the homey things. 
 What a perfect old love Dr. Ah-Fing must be! 
 I could hug him." 
 
 As Fun finished, Madame Jay-San, who had 
 smiled many times during the reading of the let 
 ter, laughed outright. "The dear child! How 
 I like her; what an honest, candid nature it is, 
 and loving. Yes, there is going to be a fine de 
 velopment there of character and purpose a 
 quick temper ?" 
 
 Fun nodded. "Yes, but not vindictive." 
 
 "All good, can't endure the saints and never 
 found that they accomplished much when it came, 
 right down to hard work, however exemplary 
 their example may be. It's faith with work that 
 counts. 
 
 "Of course, you know what that surprise is 
 going to be?" 
 
 Fun laughed. "You think she is taking up the 
 medical course?" 
 
 Madame Jay assented. 
 
 "I shall not make any objections, of course, as 
 I think her heart is set upon it and, too, the 
 
68 SUE CHUC 
 
 nurse's post can be more readily filled than the 
 physician's here; besides, our own women are rap 
 idly progressing and make excellent nurses." 
 
 "The very best," Madame answered. "As a race 
 we have a freedom from nerves, you know. All 
 of these centuries of control have done their work 
 for us. Of course, we of the mixed blood pay 
 the price of that fact, but the others well, the 
 law of compensation works, as Docia would say." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ADAME Jay watched the Doctor 
 carefully, saw that he had proper 
 nourishing meals at approximately 
 right hours, and gave him compan 
 ionship and the intelligent hearing 
 of his perplexities, so that by the 
 end of July he had recovered his wonted physical 
 tone. 
 
 The life of the great city was a constant in 
 terest to him, and he realized how, in spite of his 
 years in San Francisco's Chinese Quarter, he was 
 foreign to much of it, and set himself diligently 
 to learn the cause of many of the defects he saw. 
 His appreciation of the qualities of loyalty, 
 generosity, and patience that his people evidenced 
 brought always a quick glow of joy to him, and 
 he realized how the difference in manners, cus 
 toms, and language had clouded the judgment of 
 the western world in regard to his race. 
 
 His first opportunity to meet one of the for 
 eign missionaries came in August when two of 
 them came, en route to the north, and he found 
 
70 SUE CHUC 
 
 them kindly, intelligent men, earnest and filled with 
 zeal, and while he doubted still the amount of 
 good, from the viewpoint of achievement, they 
 were accomplishing in their chosen field as physi 
 cians to the soul only, he still felt himself going 
 out in sympathy and admiration of their efforts. 
 
 One thing disturbed him: A native nurse, a 
 pretty, very capable young woman whose progress 
 in her work had been so remarkable that Dr. Ray, 
 before leaving, had recommended her especially 
 to his care and personal direction, had grown into 
 the habit of waiting for him on varous pretexts, 
 all plausible enough, dealing directly with some 
 part of the work, but likewise all sufficiently sim 
 ple to need little talk. And one day, after a pe 
 culiarly bad night of disturbed rest, the week fol 
 lowing Madame Jay's departure, when he reached 
 his office and found Kue-Bow waiting for him and 
 saw how her eyes lightened and the pale tea-rose 
 shade of her rounded cheeks flushed to soft shell- 
 pink, the man in him rushed to the surface and the 
 old demon of desire and the loneliness of his life 
 made it difficult for him to answer her questions. 
 
 He fought it and conquered for the time, but 
 the prompting voice came again and yet again, 
 and that night as he lay on his long chair on the 
 veranda, looking out at the moon-touched surface 
 of the deep and sluggish river, across the roofs 
 
SUE CHUC 71 
 
 of the great city at his feet, from which rose the 
 confused, deep-throated murmur broken now and 
 then by the sounds of and , and real 
 ized that down there was love and companionship, 
 music and laughter, that even the very beggars in 
 the streets had what his heart and body were 
 craving, the thought of Kue-Bow came to him 
 again. Why should he not reach out his hand 
 and pluck this rose that leaned toward him, en 
 joy its sweetness? Why should he be alone and 
 lonely? Surely his work would be the better if 
 his body and heart were not starved of their 
 rightful due, body and heart ah, that was it! 
 Were it body and heart, but he knew the desire 
 for what it was desire of the soft, rounded body, 
 for the feel of the satin-fine flesh of the arms 
 about him. 
 
 No, here was not the answer his nature craved 
 of its questioning. For him there must be the 
 full joy, no stinted measure; it must be a union 
 not a scattering of force when the fates willed it 
 there would come into his life the one who would 
 be his other self and they two would in their mat 
 ing be a perfect One. Until then, why, the flesh 
 should be disciplined into subjection. After once 
 winning out of the slough he would not again be 
 drawn back. His lips curved in self-scorn of the 
 sophistries he had advanced: "His work would 
 
72 SUE CHUC 
 
 be better, forsooth, if he gave in to the demands 
 of his flesh, his brain freed from the obsession of 
 desire would be clearer, better fitted to grapple 
 with the problems his work presented." No, his 
 scientific knowledge alone taught him differently; 
 taught him that conserved desire brought added 
 force, added clearness of vision; that a mighty 
 desire force directed into intellectual channels gave 
 a mighty power but, could he master himself? 
 Was there something hidden deep in his heart 
 that called to him with voice sufficiently strong 
 to drown that other voice, a something that was 
 the goal to be striven for, the thing that, had he 
 a surety of some time possessing it, would make 
 this devil's tattoo upon his nerves and senses a 
 nothing to be brushed aside as one would brush 
 aside a buzzing and troublesome insect that dis 
 turbed one when one wished to sleep? With a 
 shout almost savage he answered, "Yes !" shouted 
 it into the night out across the silver plain of the 
 moon-bathed river to the distant hills. "Yes! 
 and yes again!" 
 
 "September 30, 188 . 
 "Mv DEAR MADAME JAY-SAN: 
 
 "Many thanks for your kind letter, and am 
 very glad that the competent nurse I sent you has 
 
SUE CHUG 73 
 
 adequately filled the place you have needed her 
 for. Yes, you can keep her until the spring. We 
 now have several really good nurses and a num 
 ber who are improving; to be sure Kue-Bow was 
 one of, if not the best, but as I said when I sent 
 her to you, because she was what she was, I 
 wanted you to have her. 
 
 "To your kind inquiry as to my health, I can 
 assure you that it is apparently established; have 
 settled down into harness, got acclimated, and 
 the blessed coming of cooler weather has made 
 me feel like my old self again. 
 
 "Yes, dear friend, you were right in what you 
 surmised. There had come a condition that 1 
 had to face, and, as always happens where the 
 psychology of the question comes into play, it 
 came when I was not at my best in fighting ways ; 
 or is it that the not being at one's best attracts 
 the condition? Confess my brain, from want of 
 rest from puzzling over that same question, feels 
 not unlike some of our lint, and am humiliated 
 by having to admit that I have not arrived at 
 any conclusion my reason accepts. But I am 
 again normal in health and spirits, working hard 
 with deep interest in the work, and hope to show 
 our friend upon her return in another fourteen 
 months that she was justified in the confidence 
 she has shown me. 
 
74 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Am deeply in your debt for the huge box of 
 books you sent me. They are now filling the 
 shelves of a new teakwood case in my sitting 
 room, and am interested to see the annotations 
 on margins and fly leaves which I find, to my de 
 light, agree with my own point of view in a 
 truly wonderful way. If they are your brother's 
 notes, as I think they must be, we, he and I, are 
 singularly in accord in our views. 
 
 "Am I to have the pleasure of seeing you both 
 this winter? I trust so. Probably you never will 
 know how much your visit did for me this sum 
 mer; should have been ill of a certainty, had you 
 not come when you did such great babies are 
 the strongest of us men at times, and in regard 
 to certain things. Yes, I admit my loneliness 
 it will be better when Dr. Ray returns. 
 
 "How right you were when you said I am 
 only Chinese by blood; the spirit seems different 
 from those others of my race I contact, but I 
 feel deeply my relationship, notwithstanding. 
 
 "Am inclosing a letter from Sue, just received, 
 as you asked me to do. Again many and deep 
 thanks for all of your thoughtful kindness. 
 "Yours most sincerely, 
 
 "AH-DAY-FUN." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 iHEN the letter with its inclosure 
 reached Madame Jay she dropped 
 her work to read it, and, as she 
 read, murmured: "Ah, the dear 
 boy; yes, I thought I had caught 
 the situation of unrest he was un 
 dergoing ; and how like, how like he is to the other 
 one I" Her keen intuition had caught the situation 
 when she saw Kue-Bow's poorly controlled emo 
 tion at the times that any reference to Dr. Fun 
 was made, and her kind heart and broad charity 
 had made her in mind feel the stress of the 
 warring forces in the Doctor and the more simple 
 elemental desire of the woman. 
 
 It had been with a sigh for poor, weak human 
 ity that she had dismissed the situation from her 
 attention. At any rate the girl was with her and 
 with her she should remain if tact and under 
 standing could keep her. For the time, evidently, 
 the Doctor had conquered. 
 
 She turned to the letter from Sue to Fun and 
 read: 
 
76 SUE CHUC 
 
 "August 1 5th, New York. 
 "FuN DEAR: 
 
 "Had thought I could keep that secret until 
 November, but find it's just fairly scorching a 
 hole in my consciousness, so must get rid of it. 
 Have made arrangements to enter the Fall 
 classes at the college; just could not bear to go 
 on with the nursing. That is all very well, but it's 
 not what I want, and it does not lead, except 
 very, very indirectly, to where I must be to be 
 happy. 
 
 "This will mean, I know, another year added 
 to the time before I join you, but that can't be 
 helped now, and, as Miss Johns said when I told 
 her: 'Don't be sorry for yourself, Sue; this will 
 not have been a wasted year, you will find,' 
 which is true, in a sense; but, you see, Miss J. 
 does not know all of the reasons that make me re 
 gret the added months. 
 
 "Of course, you want to know about how I am 
 to be situated when I leave the 'comfort and pro 
 tection of the hospital' always feel inclined to 
 sniff when I read that sentence in the prospectus. 
 'Comfort, protection' ! Umph ! Some time I am 
 going to unburden my mind upon that subject. 
 Now, to get back to the question : 
 
 "First let me tell you that my chum, Stella 
 Marks, has decided to follow my example and 
 
SUE CHUG 77 
 
 leave here at the end of her year, and we will 
 take a wee apartment together. It's already de 
 cided upon. Two students who are finishing this 
 year have it now and remain until October ist, 
 when we will take it over. 
 
 "The location, from the standpoint of society, 
 is most deplorable, as Miss Elliot would say. It 
 is a bit slummy, I'll admit, but it's convenient and 
 not too crowded; cheap, and with a number of 
 very unusually decent sort of apartment houses 
 about, considering don't know how well you 
 know New York, but your map will show you the 
 location, on Twenty-seventh between Lexington 
 and Third Avenues. 
 
 "The flat consists of a diminutive sitting room 
 with a bow window looking out on Twenty-seventh 
 Street; a bedroom that we can, by tight squeez 
 ing, get two very, oh, 'very single beds and a dress 
 ing-stand into, with a window likewise on Twen 
 ty-seventh; a mere speck of a dining-room, win 
 dow on light-shaft; a kitchenette that, if it had 
 not a door, you'd simply fall into or through when 
 you rose from the dining-table if you were not 
 careful and discloses a view of a microscopic 
 gas range and the wee-est of sinks you would 
 think a mere closet, with a window also on the 
 light-shaft; a bathroom and clothes closet on the 
 opposite side of the hall narrow as the blade 
 
78 SUE CHUC 
 
 of a knife that is the quintessence of comfort, 
 being tiled in white and blue, with a short, dumpy 
 tub tucked behind the door, and a washstand 
 slightly larger than a mush bowl. It's awfully 
 ducky, though, that small flat, and we are count 
 ing the minutes until we get in and get settled. 
 
 "Stella, owing to the change of plans, will have 
 to watch every nickel, because her money was sup 
 posed to carry her through the nursing classes 
 only, and she says she would not ask her aunt for 
 another dollar, if she, Stella, had to go charring 
 for a living. And, although I have, thanks to 
 you, a very comfortable income, I don't want to 
 spend an unnecessary cent, because I've a plan 
 simmering in my brain that, if it finally comes 
 to a boil, I shall need some money to carry out. 
 
 "One of the students who lives in the flat we 
 are to have, asked us to go out to a week-end 
 place they have in Westchester County a fort 
 night ago, and we got permission and went. 
 
 "Fun, dear, such a pretty little place it is; only 
 three-quarters of an hour from New York, but 
 just as real country as you would find anywhere. 
 Woods and a river, meadows, and nice, fat black- 
 and-white cows up to their very knees in grass; 
 funny snaky fences of purple gray wood that 
 had lichens and moss on in the shady corners; 
 stone fences with blackberry vines climbing over 
 
SUE CHUC 79 
 
 them; and a real stile; and at the edge of the 
 meadow on a slight rise of ground under four 
 big horse-chestnut trees is the house just one 
 room with open bricked fireplace, bunks built in 
 as window seats, open beams to the low roof 
 the kind of windows that open in on broad ledges 
 and have diamond-shaped panes; stained floor 
 with some rugs, a half-dozen chairs of u old hick 
 ory," I think the girls called them, with cush 
 ions, and in one corner a door leading to a wire- 
 screened back porch which is kitchen and dining- 
 room in one. 
 
 A little shack house built next to a pool is 
 their bath house. They have books and a few 
 pretty pictures, some Indian baskets and blankets, 
 and on the broad window ledges earthenware 
 bowls and pots full of ferns, curtains of wood- 
 colored burlap with hemstitched hems, all as sim 
 ple and pretty and comfortable as can be, and 
 they have no end of home-made conveniences that 
 just suit the rustic shack. No veranda, but the 
 ground leveled under the big trees and set with 
 huge flat stones that have been embedded in the 
 earth so that they make a level flooring, and there 
 are hammocks swung and two rustic tables and 
 rustic chairs. 
 
 "The little house is literally a square, boxlike 
 place, but in spite of that it is pretty, the odd 
 
8o SUE CHUC 
 
 windows and the good roof line save the day, 
 and, too, the situation, almost under the branches 
 of those four monster trees. 
 
 "We got to the 'Castle' that's the name; de 
 licious, is it not ? at five o'clock. We 'biked' from 
 the station; it's about a mile only. After Stella 
 and I had been shown over the 'Castle,' and had 
 things explained to us, we all went down to the 
 pool and had a swim, then came back and got 
 supper. While we were having it, the nicest old 
 Chinaman, who keeps house for some New York 
 boys a ways farther down the road, came in with 
 fresh milk and eggs and fruit and vegetables to 
 sell, and a big dish of cottage cheese as a gift. 
 
 "He is truly the dearest old chap, and his name 
 is Tonkey-Lo, and next letter I'll tell you his story 
 and how six years ago he met the boys and came 
 out here to keep house for them and bring up 
 'Bub,' the little chap the boys had rescued from 
 the slums. It's awfully exciting and interesting. 
 
 "I talked to him in my dialect, which it seems 
 is his own, and I thought he was going to fall 
 upon my neck and weep, so delighted was he, and 
 I explained that I was half Chinese, whereupon 
 he almost had a fit, he was so thunderstruck; and 
 he asked me all manner of questions and grunted 
 and gurgled like a bear with a honeycomb. 
 
 "The girls thought it a huge joke. 4 Bub' came 
 
SUE CHUC 8 1 
 
 / 
 
 hunting him up after he had been there a half- 
 hour, and you never saw such mutual devotion, 
 and likewise you never saw such a beautiful boy; 
 about eleven, I think, with a mop of curls, the 
 hugest black eyes, and a slender little figure that 
 is as straight as one of the birch saplings in the 
 woods. We made friends immediately, for he is 
 a friendly boy and has charming manners, which 
 statement will make you .smile when you read his 
 history. 
 
 "The following two days were spent in the 
 woods and in a call upon Tonkey-Lo and Bub, at 
 which time we met the older boys and were taken 
 over the farm, some five acres only; but the most 
 complete little place you can imagine, all the work 
 of old Tonkey-Lo. The older boys come down 
 each week over Sunday and Bub stays all the time 
 and goes to school in the village near the station. 
 
 "Just hated to come back, it was all so lovely 
 there, but the girls have agreed to let us have the 
 'Castle' during their absence of two years in Eu 
 rope. They had intended to lock it up and leave 
 it in Tonkey-Lo's care, and are only too glad to 
 let us have it instead ; so we will be in clover with 
 our town flat and this dear place to come to. The 
 Chinaman will sell us everything we want in the 
 way of green stuff, milk, eggs, and chickens, and 
 was overjoyed to hear that we were going to 
 
82 SUE CHUG 
 
 have it. He has quite evidently taken a fancy 
 to yours truly. 
 
 "Now, Fun dear, you can't complain of lacking 
 the knowledge of any of the details of my life, 
 can you? About the furnishing of the flat we 
 are going to take, more anon. I am so happy, 
 write and tell me you are glad I decided to change 
 our plans, please, please do, else I won't feel as 
 happy. 
 
 "I think from what you tell me that your Ma 
 dame Jay must be a dear. Will she, do you think, 
 like me? Your 
 
 "SUE." 
 
 Madame Jay folded the letter and replaced it 
 in its envelope. Her face was wistful; how she 
 would have loved such a daughter! And with a 
 sigh for what might not be, she sat down to an 
 swer the Doctor's letter. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ilX weeks later another one from 
 Fun inclosed the last to him from 
 Sue, and Kue-Bow brought it with 
 the other mail, making pretexts to 
 remain at hand until Madame Jay 
 had opened the Doctor's letter. 
 At the inclosure she glanced sharply and the full 
 lips quivered ever so slightly. Madame Jay, 
 aware of her scrutiny and feeling the younger 
 woman's unhappiness, said, as she looked over the 
 few lines that the Doctor had written : 
 
 "Oh, Kue-Bow, Doctor Fun wishes me to tell 
 you that he is very much obliged for the handker 
 chiefs that you embroidered for him, and will send 
 you .a line of thanks soon. He is well and en 
 joying the cool weather." 
 
 Kue's mouth drooped pathetically, and she went 
 out of the room. 
 
 "Ah! Theodocia is right when she says 'what 
 a soul-shuffling there has been!'' Madame Jay 
 sighed and turned to Sue's letter. 
 
 "New York, September i6th. 
 "I do hope, Fun dear, that your letter telling 
 
84 SUE CHUC 
 
 me I am quite forgiven is nearly here, for my 
 heart is not at rest, fearing you are disappointed 
 in me or think me presumptuous you're not? 
 you don't? 
 
 "I promised to tell you the story of the old 
 Chinaman and the boys in that letter I sent a 
 month ago. You're interested, I know; and since 
 then I've seen them all three times, for we have 
 gone to the * Castle' each week-end but one since 
 I wrote. 
 
 "Well, it seems, some six or nearly seven years 
 ago these boys, the older ones, were wharf rats 
 and about as amphibious, I should judge, and 
 made their living selling papers. Had a place they 
 called 'Cubby' up under the stringers of one of 
 the old wharves and there held great feasts. 
 Their doings were winked at by the river police 
 because they were such clever little scamps and 
 helped the R. P. to many bits of information 
 they would have found it hard to get without them. 
 
 "They, the boys, had a friend called Faith- 
 Hope that's a story all by itself, however, and 
 I won't go deeply into it here. She was a slum 
 child, and, according to them, the greatest won 
 der of the age, and she and a friend of hers, an- 
 ottar forlorn slummy, used to come down and 
 visrc the boys at 'Cubby,' and suddenly, out of 
 the clear sky, there turned up some rich relatives, 
 
SUE CHUC 85 
 
 and that made the 'big change,' as the boys call 
 it, for one of them was a wonderful woman who 
 interested herself in the boys and has helped them 
 to get up in the world. 
 
 "Old Tonkey-Lo was the keeper of a slop shop 
 down near the wharf and their landlord when 
 they decided to take a real room and give up 
 4 Cubby/ and it was at that time that little Bub 
 was adopted by them and became old Tonkey- 
 Lo's darling and one of the great incentives to 
 their getting on. 
 
 "I have laughed myself ill over the accounts 
 of their life; the turning of little Bub into a Lit 
 tle Lord Fauntleroy, and the presentation of him 
 in that character to the assembled guests at a 
 Christmas dinner at the home of Faith-Hope, 
 where she lived with a 'lady she had adopted' 
 and a big man called big Tom, who wanted to 
 adopt her. Then the rich relatives took Faith- 
 Hope home to their home in England, or Ireland, 
 I've forgotten which, now. The boys were heart 
 broken, but determined they would go to work 
 in good, hard earnest to carry out the plans they 
 had talked over with Faith-Hope. And the *won- 
 derful woman' had, before leaving, given them 
 the five acres and a shack, because they wanted 
 a place in the country to bring up Bub in and 
 where old Tonkey-Lo could have a garden and 
 
86 SUE CHUC 
 
 chickens and be free from further persecution 
 from the roughs of the city-front who had nearly 
 killed him once when he was trying to save little 
 Bub from them. 
 
 "The boys have a variety of gifts: the oldest 
 one, Casey, who is the acknowledged leader, is 
 a genius with clay, and intends being a sculptor 
 some day; one is to be a horticulturist; one an 
 architect; one a mining engineer; and Bub well, 
 Bub is going to be a dear, beautiful, kindly sponge 
 if I don't mistake. Not a vicious drop of blood 
 in the boy, but likewise not a drop of what they 
 call 'hustle' a dreamer, an idler, but oh, so lov 
 able! 
 
 "It is amusing to see the airs of protection the 
 boys put on over him, and to old Tonkey-Lo he 
 is the sun, moon, and stars. Later, when we 
 become regular week-enders, I am going to find 
 out by observation and questioning if my surmise 
 is correct. 
 
 "Of course, the boy is only a child, and they 
 one and all spoil him utterly no, that is not the 
 word I want, for he is absolutely not spoiled; but 
 they do love him so that they keep him in a sort 
 of mental and spiritual cotton-wool existence, and 
 of course that may explain things. I know you 
 are laughing at me and thinking, 'the young philos 
 opher, listen to her!' And I'm not at all certain 
 
SUE CHUC 87 
 
 when I say he is or will be a 'sponge,' that I mean 
 what most people mean when they use that word. 
 But you know that there is a kind of nature that 
 can accept and accept forever and a day, that has 
 no sense of responsibility, no initiative, goes 
 through life a sort of 'materialized bit of nega 
 tivity' don't you dare to laugh so! I have put 
 quotation marks, and I have often puzzled over 
 what it meant that such natures should be. Are 
 they just the objects created to draw to them the 
 surplus energy and tenderness, the necessary some 
 thing to expend the love and sense of helpfulness 
 we most of us have in our hearts upon, and that 
 must find expression? 
 
 "There flashed over me just now the thought 
 that some one who did not know me well, or my 
 plans for helping later, when I could do so in 
 telligently, might with reason say of me that / 
 was a 'sponge,' but I am not, Fun; oh, I am not. 
 I mean to pay back every cent with interest, you 
 know that you believe that, don't you? 
 
 "The last time I went to the 'Castle' I had 
 quite a long talk with Tonkey-Lo and answered 
 some half hundred questions, I verily believe. At 
 first I thought he was just curious, but I have 
 come to the conclusion that he is asking with an 
 object. I told him all about Mai-den and what 
 I knew of my childhood, but I did not say any- 
 
88 SUE CHUC 
 
 thing of what we, or rather I, suspect, that my 
 father is white and that he would not be over 
 joyed to discover me. But Tonkey-Lo said, quite 
 of his own volition, that he had seen that I was 
 not full-blooded Chinese. 
 
 "Coming home across the meadows I got almost 
 an attack of vertigo, thinking of what his ques 
 tions might mean. Do you suppose he knows 
 anything of me or my mother and father, Fun? 
 There, I won't let myself go along that way. 
 After all, what could there be but some sad and 
 possibly or probably horrid story to know? My 
 real life began on that day, five years ago, when 
 you took me out to the beach in San Francisco, 
 dressed in my borrowed finery and stolen-money 
 shoes. I can tell you, Fun, many's the pair of 
 shoes I've given away since, and it will be a pet 
 charity all my life to me. What fun, what joy 
 it is to give, Fun; no one who only receives ever 
 can know that pleasure; it's as distinct as can 
 be. What heaps and heaps of fun one could get 
 out of being rich, just giving it away. And, 
 speaking of giving away, reminds me that through 
 the boys I have met the very nicest, jolliest woman, 
 a Miss Tobin, who, it seems, is at the head of, 
 or is one of the heads of, a Settlement in New 
 York. 
 
 "She is an old friend of the boys and occasion- 
 
SUE CHUC 89 
 
 ally runs out to the farm to see them, and she 
 has asked me to come and see her and meet some 
 of her chums. She is the most unmissionary- 
 looking woman, and although she is, I presume, 
 what is called plain and does not care anything 
 about dress, yet is a woman of distinction. Re 
 minds me somewhat of Miss Elliot with the first 
 ten coats of veneer rubbed off; has a simplicity 
 of manner, a frankness that is delightful to me, 
 and how she does enjoy her work! It's a treat 
 to hear her talk of it. 
 
 u So, you see, your small sister is going to find 
 all of her spare hours well taken up. They can't 
 in the very nature of things be many, you know, 
 for the work I've laid out for myself will about 
 fill twenty-five out of the twenty-four hours of 
 each day. 
 
 "No, the heat did not affect me, even consid 
 ering that smells were added unto it. I'll be able 
 to stand the climate out there, I know. 
 
 "Am so glad you have so pleasant a sitting 
 room, and I am delighted to see from the snap 
 shots you sent me of it that my photograph holds 
 so conspicuous a place on your work table. But 
 who is the handsome woman whose panel picture 
 hangs on the west wall over that set of Fielding? 
 What hair and lovely eyes she has ! Is the hair 
 powdered? Her face looks too youthful to belong 
 
90 SUE CHUC 
 
 to gray or white hair. At first I thought it was 
 the portrait of some London celebrity, a Lady this 
 or Countess that, you had seen and admired, 
 bought, and brought home; then I laughed at 
 the thought, knowing you, so it must be a friend 
 or you would not have it where your eyes can 
 rest upon it each time you look up from your 
 writing. Don't forget to answer, please. 
 
 "Who took those pictures, by the way? They 
 are good. I can read the titles of your books, 
 and each object stands out as clearly as though 
 individually focused.- 
 
 "No, I am not going to get new winter clothes. 
 My last winter's ones are in good condition; 
 thanks, dear, just the same. How you do think 
 of every comfort for me. Fun, do you think I 
 will ever be pretty? I seem so, so homely to 
 myself; do people ever grow pretty after twenty? 
 This time you may laugh if you want to. I am 
 silly. Your 
 
 "SUE/ 1 
 
 Madame Jay herself laughed heartily as she 
 finished, and, sitting down at her desk, wrote a 
 short letter to Dr. Fun, asking if she might send 
 on the letter to a friend, just as a sort of assent 
 to that friend's remarks in a letter to her, writ 
 ten some time ago. It might be a little matter of 
 two months before it could be returned, but it 
 
SUE CHUG 91 
 
 would not be lost. She preferred not to send a 
 copy as the friend had, among a dozen or more 
 fads, the one of "finding significance in handwrit 
 ing." 
 
 Dr. Fun's reply was prompt and cordial in its 
 assent; Madame Jay had not told him to whom 
 the letter was to go, but he was glad to have 
 any friend of hers whom she might think inter 
 ested 'see the "little sister's" letters. 
 
 On receipt of the Doctor's permission, Madame 
 Jay wrote: 
 
 "Peking, November nth. 
 "Mv DEAR THEODOCIA: 
 
 "In your letter to me many months ago, you 
 said, among other things, that you believed that 
 the word 'chance,' or the expression 'by luck, 1 
 should by rights be struck from our vocabulary, 
 or else given a more restricted significance. That 
 you had come to the conclusion that there was 
 a reason for everything; the seeming luck or 
 chance was but an effect of a cause or causes set 
 up long ago, and you added, if I am not letting 
 my memory play me false, that you personally 
 believed every life your life touched either owed 
 you or was owed by you a debt of some kind or 
 other, and later on you said that you always now 
 felt a sense of responsibility until you had solved 
 the 'how' to pay or what to accept in payment, 
 
92 SUE CHUC 
 
 whether it meant companionship, mental, spiritual, 
 or physical. 
 
 u Now, my dear Docia, when you return this 
 inclosed letter, which kindly do at your earliest 
 convenience, you can tell me what you think of 
 the size of this globe of ours, and if it is ever 
 possible to escape paying or being paid. The let 
 ter is self-explanatory. 
 
 "Many thanks for your kind inquiries for my 
 brother's and my health, which, in both cases, is 
 perfect. Am duly thankful for the fact, as we 
 he and I have some big work on hand that 
 will need clear brain and freedom from physical 
 ills to carry to a satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 "There has sprung up in my heart a little 
 plant of hope: am trying to be cautious and pa 
 tient, to watch and to wait like a good gardener 
 to see if it will develop, bud and flower. They 
 talk of the impatience of youth. I think that is 
 nothing to the impatience of age. The one car 
 ries with it a sense of ultimate fulfillment; the 
 other the fear that the longed-for thing may not 
 be granted before the curtain drops, and between 
 those two kinds of impatience lies all of the never- 
 to-be-bridged distance between youth and age. 
 
 "Pardon! I did not mean to write you a hom 
 ily; and, as you know, it is only at times that I 
 do feel old. Just now this new hope that has 
 
SUE CHUC 93 
 
 come to me has made me, strange to say, feel 
 the fact. 
 
 "This is not by way of being a letter; only 
 an opportunity to send a word with the inclosure, 
 and, although I do not stand on ceremony, 'tis 
 you who owe me a longish letter in answer to 
 mine, which covered more sheets than I usually 
 devote to any four letters. 
 
 "Yours in affection, 
 "JAY-SAN." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 HE Doctor had gone down into the 
 city one night, in answer to an 
 emergency call, and, being con 
 ducted to the house of a man whom 
 he did not know, found the place 
 in an uproar. The sudden and 
 violent illness of the master of the house had upset 
 the wits of the other members of the family. 
 
 All of the women of the family were wailing 
 as he entered the courtyard, and the air of the 
 room into which he was shown was so dense with 
 the smoke of burning incense, of the pungent odor 
 of some distilled herb preparations and the thick 
 reek of weeks of closed windows for the cold 
 weather caused every native to exclude any pos 
 sible breath of fresh air that for a second even 
 his well-seasoned olfactory organs rebelled. 
 
 With an exclamation of impatience he propped 
 back the heavy door, and, ordering the windows 
 to be opened and the lamp held so that he could 
 see clearly, he went to the patient. 
 
 Stretched upon wadded quilts which rested upon 
 
SUE CHUC 95 
 
 a native frame of lacquered wood, he saw the 
 man, his face of a grayish pallor, great beads of 
 sweat standing upon his forehead, his eyes sunken 
 and glazed, and the body shaken by long convul 
 sive tremors. 
 
 He felt the pulse and leaned his head down to 
 listen to the heart's beat; then, giving orders 
 for his assistant at the hospital to be sent for and 
 a nurse to be called, superintended the carrying 
 out of his immediate needs with a firm voice 
 that carried with it a command ; stopped the wail 
 ing, gave a word of encouragement to the old 
 wife and much older mother of the man, sent the 
 daughter to help the servants carry out his orders, 
 and had a semblance of order restored when his 
 assistant arrived. 
 
 After the young physician had looked at the 
 patient and seen what was the treatment adopted, 
 he glanced inquiringly at the older man, who nod 
 ded in answer to the other's unspoken question. 
 
 They worked hard, they worked steadily 
 through the remainder of the night, and, as the 
 dawn broke, the patient, limp and weak as a new 
 baby, but purged of the poison, lay supinely. It 
 had been a hard fight and they two had fought 
 against odds, but they had won. 
 
 Dr. Fun, before ordering the room to be 
 thoroughly cleared of the paraphernalia used, 
 
96 SUE CHUC 
 
 bottled and sealed some of the contents of one 
 of the basins, gave it to his assistant to take 
 back to the laboratory, and dismissed him for the 
 necessary rest and bath before the office hours at 
 the hospital, he remaining at the bedside to see 
 that there was no failure in carrying out his or 
 ders until the nurse should arrive. 
 
 He was tired through and through, and sat in 
 a chair at the bedside with eyes closed until, hear 
 ing a long sigh, he started up and leaned over 
 the sick man. 
 
 "Will I die?" 
 
 "Not this time, my friend; but for some time 
 you will be weak. A man of your age cannot go 
 through an experience such as this with the same 
 chance for quick recovery that a young person 
 has." 
 
 "You know what it was?" 
 
 "Yes. Do not talk now; later, when you have 
 rested." The sick man made a slight and feeble 
 effort to remonstrate, and then weakly gave it 
 up as too great. An hour passed. Then the 
 nurse and her helper came and Dr. Fun rose 
 to leave. A feeble hand held his coat and he bent 
 down to hear what the man said. 
 
 "He has tried to kill me twice the third time 
 he will succeed. The first time in San Francisco. 
 
SUE CHUC 97 
 
 I thought I had escaped him here, but he has 
 found me even after thirty-five years." 
 
 Fun looked down at him compassionately. 
 "Think no more of it. We will, when you are 
 able, talk of it, and maybe we can find a way out. 
 You are a man of wealth; use some of it to at 
 tain freedom. Was it Tong, or private?" 
 
 "Private no it was not money; it is the child 
 he wants, the boy child" his feeble voice break 
 ing. "I cannot give him that, for as I stole the 
 child so was the child stolen from me, and no trace, 
 no trace." Fun's ear had caught the names of 
 the Alley and San Francisco, and his memory 
 had gone back to the places he knew so well. 
 Ah ! how many just such cases he knew of ! How 
 many had occurred in that very city and Quarter. 
 It was so old a method of vengeance and yet 
 ever carrying its heartbreak and potency for suf 
 fering the loss of the "first born." To the Oc 
 cidental the words carry no such pregnancy of 
 meaning. 
 
 Gently loosening the clutching fingers, he gave 
 his orders and went back to bathe and change into 
 fresh clothes. There was no time for even a short 
 nap ; at nine he was to perform an operation. He 
 held his hand up, perfectly steady; he looked at 
 his face, weary, with circles too deep and too 
 dark, but with an underglow of blood and health. 
 
98 SUE CHUC 
 
 Yes, he would drink a couple of cups of strong 
 coffee and eat a good breakfast and he would be 
 fit, and he mentally turned the key on the secret 
 cabinet in his mind where dwelt the little whis 
 pering demon whose name was poppy-dreams. 
 
 The following day he returned to the house 
 of the man whom he had found so near to death. 
 In the interim his assistant had taken the case 
 and reported the patient slowly improving. 
 
 As he entered the courtyard he glanced about 
 him. He had been aware in his hurried crossing 
 of it the night he was first called there that it 
 was of unusual size, and, without giving it defi 
 nite thought, had yet realized that it was more 
 than usually rich in decoration, and now as the 
 full light of day flooded it, he looked about with 
 delight. Always quick to feel beauty in all its 
 forms, it was with a distinct feeling of amazed 
 delight that his eyes turned from point to point. 
 Glazed tiles, pottery and porcelain jars and 
 bowls, with their burden of quaint trees, carved 
 stone, and carved and lacquered wood. He even 
 turned to look back on it all after having entered 
 under the heavy portals of the doorway, and in 
 so doing spied dark eyes peering at him from be 
 hind the fretwork of a window blind. 
 
 The servant who ushered him into the room 
 where lay the sick man, he took particular notice 
 
SUE CHUC 99 
 
 of; the face was immobile as though carven, but 
 the eyes were troubled, and Dr. Fun made a men 
 tal note of the man when he entered the sick 
 room. 
 
 The nurse rose from the seat at the bedside 
 where she had been writing at the patient's dicta 
 tion, and, after answering the Doctor's questions, 
 left the room. 
 
 Dr. Fun took the man's hand in his and felt 
 of the flesh, slid his fingers to the wrist and 
 touched the pulse; then, sitting down on the chair 
 the nurse had occupied, held the wrist firmly while 
 he noted the beats and looked at the man's face, 
 observing the eyes, the pallor, the look of suffer 
 ing. 
 
 "I see, my friend, that you are not letting your 
 self make the recovery you might; how is it? 
 Are you troubled? Can I help you in ways other 
 than ministering to the body?" 
 
 The old man looked long and intently at him 
 and the pallor of his face deepened, and into 
 his eyes leaped fear. Feebly he endeavored to 
 withdraw his hand, and, seeing the look, Dr. Fun 
 gently withdrew his own. 
 
 "Who are you?" 
 
 "I am Dr. Fun, at present in charge of the 
 hospital, and it was I who attended you during 
 your illness of night before last. You were so 
 
ioo SUE CHUC 
 
 ill at the time that you did not see me well. Why 
 should you feel fear of me? I am a stranger to 
 you, a stranger almost to the land." 
 
 Still the eyes stared with the look of shocked 
 fear, and he was beginning to think some new 
 phase of the illness at hand when the patient, 
 with an extreme effort, raised himself from the 
 pillows and peered so closely into the Doctor's 
 face that his fevered breath struck him. 
 
 "Where do you come from? You are not he; 
 he is now an old man; are you the part of him 
 my treachery killed the young self with its full 
 ness of life and hope and belief? Is it to haunt 
 me you come; to make me repent?* He grasped 
 the Doctor's hands and peered under dropped 
 lids. "Tell me, tell me, I can better know the 
 truth than be haunted by the thought of the chance 
 that I may not know that I may not know " 
 
 The Doctor saw that there was some deeper 
 ground for the old man's trouble than any mere 
 disturbance to the physical, and he understood 
 from the allusions made that he was so like some 
 other man that the old belief of the race, that 
 the injured man might at will project a material 
 ized self to haunt the author of his pain, had 
 taken hold of him, and realizing how serious 
 might be the consequences to his patient if, in his 
 
SUE CHUC 10 1 
 
 weakened state, he became unduly excited, he 
 strove to quiet him. 
 
 "Lie back on your pillows," gently replacing 
 him, "and I will sit here and tell you of myself, 
 all that I know. From what you have said to-day 
 and what you said the night I first came, I know 
 that you carry a burden of unhappiness. My re 
 semblance to some one who has to do with that 
 unhappiness makes you fear. You must not for 
 a chance likeness, trick of manner of voice, think 
 me what you fear." As he spoke, he smoothed 
 the clothes deftly as could a woman, and again 
 clasping the sick man's wrist kept note of the 
 pulse beats as he told his own story. 
 
 Gradually as he talked the hunted, haunted 
 look died out of the eyes so steadily fixed on his 
 own, and in its place came first a surprise that 
 deepened into wonder and became at last satis 
 faction, a satisfaction so great that it left him 
 powerless to speak, so that when the Doctor had 
 finished his story there was a silence. 
 
 As he had talked, the Doctor had watched those 
 changing eyes, noticed the surprise, the wonder, 
 and the satisfaction, and realized that he had 
 brought comfort to the old man, even though in 
 some way unknown to his intent. 
 
 The sick man's eyelids dropped, and from un 
 der them rolled tears. The long years of control 
 
102 SUE CHUC 
 
 had taught the muscles their lesson, and even now, 
 in the moment of greatest emotion, they were true 
 to the teaching, but the tears, those slow tears 
 of age, came unchecked. After a time they ceased 
 and when the nurse came into the room the face 
 was dry and no sign of them remained; but the 
 eyes were different that looked up at her, there 
 was a renewal of life, a brightness, and she smiled 
 up at Dr. Fun, who had risen and stood to take 
 leave of the sick man. 
 
 "It is as Kue-Bow affirmed: your presence 
 brings healing," she said. 
 
 "I will keep you quiet no longer than I have 
 to, Choo-Dan. It will rest with you, though," 
 and he smiled down at the man. 
 
 "You will come to-morrow?" 
 
 The Doctor shook his head. "No, you do not 
 need me, really. My assistant and your nurse are 
 quite competent to bring you through, and I am 
 very busy." 
 
 "You will not go away?" 
 
 "Away you mean from the city? Not that 
 I know of." 
 
 "You will not you will not go anywhere with 
 out seeing me?" the other persisted. 
 
 The Doctor was touched and amused, and gave 
 the promise as one would to a querulous child, 
 and left. 
 
SUE CHUG 103 
 
 At the outer door he found the servant, palpa 
 bly waiting for him, and, thinking him anxious 
 as to his master's condition, he stopped and told 
 him that it would be but a short time before Mr. 
 Choo-Dan would be up and about. 
 
 "You have been long with your master?" he 
 inauired, as the servant helped him with his coat 
 and handed him his fur cap. 
 
 "Forty years, sir." 
 
 "That speaks well for you both," the Doctor 
 said, in his bright, kind way, with a smile and a 
 look at the servant. The other's breath came 
 quickly, his lids fluttered, and his nostrils quiv 
 ered as he bowed. 
 
 "Umph! The servant evidently knows about 
 the master's trouble and was with him at the time. 
 If it did not seem to have comforted Choo-Dan, 
 that sketch of my own experiences, I should ex 
 pect, to have this wonderful resemblance I bear 
 to some one get me into trouble some dark night, 
 perhaps." 
 
 He hesitated the better part of a minute. The 
 thought had crossed his mind that the date of 
 the event of old Choo-Dan's child-stealing coin 
 cided with what he knew of his own, and San 
 Francisco was the city in which both had occurred. 
 Then, with a shake of his head and a smile at 
 his folly, he went his way. No, it was absurd, 
 
104 SUE CHUC 
 
 and besides the thing was of such frequent oc 
 currence. His own anxiety to know more of his 
 birth and parentage and the rather unusual cir 
 cumstances developed by the old man's partial be 
 trayal of his own trouble, had made his active 
 brain strike fire on the subject. 
 
 On his return to his room that night he found a 
 letter from Sue. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 "New York, October iyth. 
 iUN DEAR : 
 
 "Am so interested and excited! 
 Have discovered that the 'wonder 
 ful woman' whom the boys con 
 sider their fairy godmother and 
 call 'our Mrs. Theodocia,' is iden 
 tical with the woman whose photograph is on 
 your wall that I noticed in the snapshots you sent 
 me and that I have written you of, begging to be 
 told who she is, and it all came about quite in the 
 most approved style. 
 
 "We had gone down to 'Cosy Corner' that's 
 what we have called the week-end place, wanting 
 a name of our own over Sunday, and I was hav 
 ing one of my pow-wows with old Tonkey-Lo and 
 the boys, and it suddenly occurred to me that they 
 would like to see the snapshots of your den, for 
 by this they know all about my 'big brother,' and 
 are very interested, and I told Bub to run along 
 over to the house and get them. 
 
 "About fifteen minutes after, we saw him come 
 
106 SUE CHUC 
 
 flying back and long before he had arrived he 
 was tossing up his arms and yelling so that we 
 thought something had gone wrong, and all rushed 
 out to meet him. 
 
 ' 'It's our lady; it's our lady!' was what he 
 was yelling, and he dashed up to us and held out 
 the picture showing the panel portrait. I was 
 so excited that I quite forgot to read him a lec 
 ture on 'the opening of parcels not belonging to 
 oneself.' You should have seen those boys and 
 old Tonkey-Lo! One would have thought it one 
 of the seven wonders that some one in China 
 had a photograph of 'their lady,' and they were 
 deeply disappointed when I could not tell them 
 anything of how you came by it or how well you 
 knew her. I'm awfully curious, myself, Fun dear. 
 They made me stay to lunch and they talked all 
 the time about her. You will tell me how you 
 knew her, won't you? I'm glad she's quite old. 
 She must be at least forty yes? 
 
 "I wish you could have seen our luncheon. The 
 boys set the table with what they call 'our com 
 pany service' in honor of my being there, and it 
 looked so pretty. The china is all that familiar 
 old pattern Mai-den had with the little coral-col 
 ored figures of girls and boys and funny bridges 
 and impossible barnyard fowls on a grayish cream 
 ground. It was sent them by some friend of 'their 
 
SUE CHUC 107 
 
 Lady Theodocia,' some dear old man out in Pe 
 king, who is so learned he knows everything about 
 everything, the boys say, and who was born in 
 Europe and had an English father; then when 
 he was a man, went back to China to work for 
 his mother's people. Or else it was a Russian that 
 his father was, I can't quite remember, because 
 they told me so many weird tales. Anyway, Mrs. 
 Theodocia is a great friend of his and she had 
 written to him one time telling him all about find 
 ing her niece and these boys and saying that they, 
 the boys, were going to keep house, and what 
 should come along in the next few months but a 
 notification from a big Chinaman in Mott Street 
 that there was a case directed to them, duty paid, 
 and sure enough it was for them and directed to 
 all of them. Wasn't it just dear of that man! 
 The boys were so delighted they never rested 
 until they had learned all about that pottery. 
 They took a plate up to, or down to, rather, the 
 big German who teaches the night classes, and 
 he gave them books to read about pottery-making, 
 and now they can tell all about marks and glazes 
 and firings and crackle. Aren't they just the 
 j oiliest boys? 
 
 "Where was I? Oh, yes; telling you of the 
 luncheon. Well, the table had the lovely dishes 
 on it, and their best table-cloth that some girl 
 
io8 SUE CHUC 
 
 they used to know in their slummy days hem 
 stitched for them; and hemstitched napkins. In 
 the center was one of the big bowls, with autumn 
 leaves. The knives and forks were the prettiest 
 things! I could not help looking at them closely 
 and finally I asked if they were Swiss carving, 
 whereat Casey got very red and admitted that 
 the handles were his work; he had spent every 
 spare minute for several winters working on 
 them, and the set was just finished. That boy is 
 an artist! 
 
 "We had fried chicken with such gravy; it 
 does take a Chinese cook to make that, Fun; and 
 salad of beets, carrots, potatoes, and lovely let 
 tuce from one of the glass frames, all about the 
 dish, and the dressing perfectly mixed; hot bis 
 cuits, and honey and apple-turnovers. 
 
 "The boys have very good manners, and Casey 
 keeps a sharp eye on them to see that they live 
 up to that gorgeous china, I can tell you! Little 
 Bub is a little aristocrat in his manners. As 
 Casey said, in telling me of him, 'We never had 
 to tell him to be careful; it just comes natural. 
 But for the rest of us! Umph! Well, we ain t 
 are not done yet with having to be careful. 1 
 
 "When the boys become interested they forget 
 the acquired knowledge of the parts of speech 
 and what is called Refinement of language' at 
 
SUE CHUC 109 
 
 Miss Elliot's, and drop into all kinds of slang. 
 I like it immensely; they are so unconscious of 
 how funny the abrupt transitions are to one listen 
 ing, and, Fun, they are really such dear boys ; not 
 a bit coarse; just full of life and spirits and so 
 good-hearted. I wish / could come across some 
 boys like that in just the stage of development 
 they were in when their Lady found them, and 
 play fairy godmother. It must be such good fun 
 and she must be such a sensible woman, too. 
 What do you suppose were the set of rules she 
 gave them to go by? they each have a copy 
 pasted in a favorite book: 
 
 " 'No. i. Keep clean. 
 
 " 'No. 2. Remember you are your brother's 
 keeper. 
 
 " 'No. 3. Don't let a day go by without hav 
 ing added to your stock of knowledge, or helped 
 some one. 
 
 " 'No. 4. Be clean!' 
 
 "Not a bit of preaching, only those few lines. 
 Good, is it not? Casey said that they found the 
 first and the last the hardest to keep, but they 
 agreed to lay out a schedule and never let any 
 thing break into it; then they would some time 
 get the 'clean habit' so fixed they would not have 
 to be looking out all the time. 
 
 "He said, 'You see, Miss Sue, we was were 
 
no SUE CHUC 
 
 born in the dirt and everybody we knew until 
 Faith-Hope adopted her Lady was dirty and we 
 never even thought about it.' I asked, 'Was 
 Faith-Hope?' 
 
 * 'Oh, no; she used to be just as clean as she 
 could be.' Then they told me of the old times. 
 Truly, Fun, I should like to have some boys. 
 Are the Chinese boys as interesting, do you think? 
 Maybe when I come out to you I can rescue some 
 Chinese slummies wouldn't it be fun! 
 
 "After the luncheon was finished we went for 
 a walk. The woods are heavenly now, and we 
 brought back great branches of autumn leaves and 
 berries, and the boys helped us arrange them. 
 Then we asked them to have a picnic supper with 
 us, and afterward we sat about and told stories 
 before the fire until old Tonkey-Lo came looking 
 for his adored Bub. 
 
 "I can see where this week-end shack is going 
 to mean much to us. 
 
 "We are working very hard, but do not get 
 worried over that fact, for we are very careful in 
 regard to our food, our hours, and our life gen 
 erally, and both my chum and I are strong as can 
 be. No, I'm not overdoing, truly. Please don't 
 send me any more money for clothes. I have 
 everything I want. Yes, you can send me that 
 gold locket you spoke of. I love jewelry, but I 
 
SUE CHUC 1 1 1 
 
 want a picture of my big brother in the locket, 
 else back it goes. Your 
 
 "SUE." 
 
 U P. S. I'm afraid my letters read 'scrappy/ 
 as our boys would say. But I want you to know 
 all the little details of our life, and I write as 
 they come to my mind. Anyway, Fun dear, you 
 don't want letters that read like extracts from a 
 'polite letter writer,' do you? 
 
 "P. S. No. 2. Old Tonkey-Lo wants to know 
 the names of the people you call Madame Jay 
 and her brother. He is of a curiosity! S." 
 
 When Fun had read and reread, laughed and 
 sighed over the letter, he inclosed it in an en 
 velope and directed it to Madame Jay; then sat 
 for some time staring across at the face of the 
 handsome woman in the panel on the wfcll oppo 
 site. "How she radiates helpfulness," he thought. 
 "How rich she makes the lives she contacts." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 i AM afraid, Dr. Fun, you will have 
 to go to see Choo-Dan; he is not 
 improving as he should, and asks 
 daily of you." 
 
 Dr. Fun's young assistant stood 
 before the desk in the Doctor's 
 office one day a fortnight later, a puzzled frown 
 drawing two vertical lines between his eyebrows 
 and his big spectacles resting with difficulty upon 
 the very indeterminate bridge of his flat nose, 
 giving him the appearance of a benevolently in 
 clined but puzzled young owl. 
 
 "Yes, Doctor; what seems to be wrong?" 
 "Nothing specific; yet he does not get strong." 
 "Very well," seeing the worried look. "I will 
 make time to-day." 
 
 The lines disappeared as though by magic, and 
 the queer smooth face regained its wonted se 
 renity. 
 
 That afternoon the Doctor again entered the 
 big court and was conducted to the patient's room. 
 The old man had been dozing and wakened with 
 
SUE CHUC 113 
 
 a start as the Doctor stood by his bedside. He 
 blinked several times, as though not quite certain 
 whether or not a dream were fulfilling itself, 
 and, as the recognition of the reality came to him, 
 he grasped a fold of the Doctor's coat and held 
 it tightly. 
 
 u Ah! 'tis you," with a long sigh; "then it is 
 all true. I did not dream it." 
 
 "What is wrong, Choo-Dan? They tell me 
 that you are troubling over something, that you 
 are not gaining strength as you should." 
 
 The old man shook his head impatiently. "No, 
 I am not gaining strength and I will not, I think, 
 until I have cleaned my heart as you have cleaned 
 my body." 
 
 The Doctor sat down on the chair placed by the 
 bedside and said: "If it will help you to tell me 
 your trouble, tell it. We physicians have to be 
 confessors often." 
 
 After a moment's pause, Choo-Dan began: 
 
 "Many years ago, before you were born, I had 
 a friend who was dearer to me than myself, or 
 I thought so until we loved the same girl. We 
 had been reared together in a land far from this; 
 were schoolmates, and later, when our studies at 
 Bonn were over yes" seeing the Doctor's sur 
 prised look "it was there we lived we trav 
 eled together. And it w'as while we were trav- 
 
H4 SUE CHUC 
 
 eling, stopping for a while where we found in 
 terest, that we met the girl and both loved her. 
 You know how much more freely the foreigners 
 allow their daughters to live. She was the daugh 
 ter of a German professor in Jena, and we were 
 taking a graduate course in the University and 
 living in his house, so that we saw her each day. 
 
 "My friend had foreign blood, and with it a 
 something that brought him nearer in understand 
 ing and sympathy than my full Chinese blood al 
 lowed me, and soon I saw that I had no chance 
 to win a heart that was even then beating for 
 him." The old man's eyes wore a far-away look 
 as though he were gazing across the years. u My 
 heart was bitter and black, my love for my friend 
 turned to gall, and, lest I do him harm I left, 
 but not until I had told him of my love for her 
 and hate toward him. 
 
 "There was a third student in the house, a man 
 we had disliked and avoided, a man with the 
 blood of several races flowing in his veins, and 
 bearing with it the worst traits of each. He was 
 supposed to be a Central American, but my friend 
 and I knew him to be part Chinese. We had been 
 so taken up with our love of the girl that we 
 had not known or noticed that this other man's 
 heart was caught in the gold of her hair, in the 
 heaven's blue of her eyes, and the rose and cream 
 
SUE CHUC 115 
 
 of her cheeks, and it was only after I had told 
 my friend of my feeling and left the house that 
 he stole after me, his livid toad's face green with 
 the jealousy of his wicked heart. He had lis 
 tened at our door, heard, and come to me, the 
 loser, with offer of help in my vengeance ven 
 geance, I had thought of no vengeance, and I 
 told him so and threw him off." 
 
 There was a silence and the Doctor held a 
 glass of water to the trembling lips and looked 
 compassionately down at the yellow face. After 
 a minute, Choo-Dan took up his tale: 
 
 "I wandered far and even came back home to 
 see the mother I had not seen from babyhood, but 
 I found no peace. I had grown away from the 
 customs of my people; they seemed as savages to 
 me; I could see no good in anything, and I left. 
 This time I went to America, and one day in 
 Washington I met the Central American. We 
 stopped as of a mutual impulse and talked. He 
 told me that he had kept track of my friend, that 
 he and the girl had married, and that she was to 
 be a mother soon; that they were even now in 
 Washington, and he said his evil black eyes 
 glinting under their heavy lashless lids 'You re 
 fused my help when I offered it you before. You 
 had no desire for vengeance then. Have you 
 now?" 
 
n6 SUE CHUC 
 
 "And again I pushed him aside as I would a 
 toad, only refraining from killing him as we re 
 frain from trampling upon a toad, because of 
 its loathsomeness. 
 
 "Once again I wandered down into the South; 
 far down, and I crossed from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, taking months to the trip, and landed 
 in San Francisco. 
 
 "At the last of the trip there had come to me 
 a feeling of weariness, a desire to go back to the 
 country and people that were mine; to the con 
 ditions that so short a time before I had found 
 strange and distasteful. And I was walking 
 through the narrow streets of the Chinese Quar 
 ter in San Francisco, the second day after my ar- 
 ival, seeing it all with new and clearer vision, when 
 again I met the Central American. This time I 
 made as though to avoid him, but he would not 
 have it and stopped and said, 'They are here.' 
 
 " 'Here,' I said stupidly, for it seemed to me 
 that I was being hunted. 
 
 'Yes, here,' he said again, and leaning to 
 ward me, his lips drawn back in a snarl, he added : 
 'Would you not like to see his, your friend's, 
 first-born? 'Tis a boy, a fine boy, with a look of 
 the father already in his face. 'Tis said, you 
 know, that if the woman loves, the child will re 
 semble the man of her heart.' 
 
SUE CHUG ii 7 
 
 "I know I trembled and I know that there was 
 born at the hearing a desire to hurt. He, the 
 toad-man, read my hurt and followed me back to 
 the hotel, talking, laying bare his plan, for the 
 carrying out of which he wanted my help. His 
 certainty of gaining my consent, his fearless frank 
 ness hypnotized me; and when he left me it was 
 fully agreed that his should be the part of steal 
 ing the child, mine of preparing a safe shelter 
 until we could with safety leave the country, tak 
 ing the child with us. We were to go to a place 
 that he knew of near Mexico, high up in the heart 
 of the mountains, and there bring up the child. 
 
 "I was vaguely conscious as he talked that in 
 his heart he meant no good to me nor to 
 the child, perhaps; to me of a certainty none, but 
 his queer compelling eyes robbed me of judgment, 
 and when he left he thought me completely in 
 his power and under the spell his evil eye had 
 cast." 
 
 Again the voice faltered, again the Doctor's 
 kind eyes expressed the pity he felt and his strong, 
 helpful hands smoothed the pillows and re 
 arranged the bedding. 
 
 The voice, grown stronger, took up the thread 
 of the story: 
 
 "It was all done as he said: he stole the child, 
 I hid them both in the house I had rented on 
 
Ii8 SUE CHUC 
 
 one of the hill tops, then" the thin lips bit the 
 words "then I woke from my trance. I saw 
 what I had done, and horror filled my heart and 
 I determined to restore the child. I had one 
 friend in San Francisco and to him I went, telling 
 him my story in full, sparing myself in nothing. 
 And after he had heard it he stretched out his 
 hands in compassion toward me, saying: 'Oh, my 
 friend, be strong; I have that to tell you which 
 needs a man's strength to hear: the child's mother 
 is dead; the shock of her child's loss killed her; 
 her heart was weak and it broke.' 
 
 "I went mad, I think. Not mad in the way 
 we mean when we say it, but mad nevertheless; 
 and I stole the child from the man-toad and took 
 him with me to the house of my friend. No, I 
 could not give the child back to his father. The 
 second day after I had stolen him I left my 
 friend's house during the dusk to go to the house 
 I had rented previously, having a desire to see 
 for myself what was occurring. I had discarded 
 my European clothes was dressed in full Chinese 
 dress, and had on a perfectly adjusted wig with 
 long queue, could have passed for a servant of 
 the house, servant class, and had shaved my mous 
 tache. I felt perfectly safein the evening from 
 chance of recognition should I meet the man. 
 When I arrived at the house it was dark, the gar- 
 
SUE CHUC 119 
 
 den gate was walled up, and a 'To Let' sign fast 
 ened on the post. 
 
 "On my return to my friend's I found the place 
 in an uproar the nurse had disappeared with the 
 child. Everything that could be done was done, 
 but, owing to the necessity for secrecy, so little 
 could be done. At the end of a week I left for 
 China. The night before leaving I, in my Chi 
 nese clothes, was walking down Dupont Street 
 between Clay and Washington and stopped before 
 a shop to look into the depths for a second at the 
 group at the back, attracted by some movement 
 of one of them. In spite of the change made by 
 the costume, for he was now dressed as was I, 
 in Chinese clothes, and with what I knew to be 
 a wig under the round hat, I recognized the man, 
 my evil genius. As though feeling my eyes upon 
 him he looked toward me and, as I stood there 
 with the light from the lamps falling full upon 
 me, recognized me. I looked into his eyes across 
 the space of the room for what seemed to me an 
 eternity, and turned away. I knew he had fol 
 lowed me, and I wished to hear what he had to 
 say to me and wished to say to him what I had 
 in my heart to say, so turned up the street when 
 T reached the corner, thinking to draw him into a 
 place I knew of where, undisturbed, I could have 
 speech with him. But I had not remembered the 
 
120 SUE CHUC 
 
 treacherous heart of the man, and as we went into 
 the alley he sprang upon me and stabbed me. 
 
 "I fell more from the impulse of his weight 
 than from the wound, and he fled, thinking me 
 killed. The blow had glanced and made a pain 
 ful but not fatal wound, and I got to my feet, 
 stanched the bleeding, and found my way to 
 my friend's house, where assistance was given me. 
 We both thought it best that I should keep to 
 my plans of sailing the following day, taking 
 with me a young Chinaman who would be able to 
 attend to the dressing of the wound and who had 
 been my servant for years yes, it was the man 
 you saw here. He has grown old in my service, 
 and has watched me through all of the years 
 with a love and fidelity not usual. He was my 
 servant in Europe, too, and knew each step in 
 the road I had stumbled along. 
 
 "I came here to the home of my fathers, mar 
 ried after a few years. My wife has been a 
 good, kind one, borne me children daughters 
 only no son has come to us ; and years ago, when 
 we knew that to us would come no son, we adopt 
 ed an orphan, a nephew of my wife. I have lived 
 for thirty-odd years here in a sort of dull content, 
 broken at times by fierce fits of rebellion and re 
 morse; have never once left this province; held 
 no communication with the world outside of the 
 
SUE CHUC 121 
 
 small one of my home city; identified myself with 
 its interests, and felt a sort of numbed happiness 
 at times. They will tell you," with a grim smile, 
 "that I am called a good and charitable man. 
 
 "One day, a few months ago, I was coming 
 from the city, and my chair was delayed by a 
 procession. As I sat looking out upon the crowd 
 and down upon them from my chair, I looked di 
 rectly into the evil eyes I had never forgotten. 
 The face from dissipation and disease was changed 
 past recognition, but the eyes remained the same 
 and I saw that the recognition had been mutual. 
 He was dressed in the meanest rags, one leg was 
 bound with filthy cloths and one ear was gone 
 completely we know wthat that means and 
 death was written clearly on the scarred, hid 
 eous face and across the awful toothless mouth 
 that dragged to one side. 
 
 "The procession passed by, my coolies went 
 on, and when I looked back a few minutes after 
 he was not to be seen among the crowd. A week 
 after, I began to feel ill, not in any way that 
 made it possible for me to determine the seat of 
 the wrong, but sufficiently for me to know that 
 for some reason my entire system was undergoing 
 some species of alteration. For several weeks 
 I thought it was a possible condition due to my 
 age, then came the violent attack when you were 
 
122 SUE CHUC 
 
 called in, and I knew I had been poisoned poi 
 soned in some devilish way where the death comes 
 slowly at first, then, at a given time, with a dash 
 like the winning horse at a race. Your science 
 saved me, but if I am to regain, my strength I must 
 be free of this heart burden I bear. I must see 
 and talk with the boyhood friend I robbed of 
 first born and wife; must tell him all, as I have 
 told you, and, late as it is, make what reparation 
 I can. Will you send for him? I know his ad 
 dress most do, even in this big land, for he has 
 been an angel of mercy to all who have appealed 
 to him for sickness of body or soul." 
 
 At these last words, Dr. Fun's color had 
 changed. Surely but one could be so spoken of 
 
 and that one Ah, the wonder of life, the 
 
 mysteries of the human heart and soul! 
 
 u Yes, I will send to him for you it is of Dr. 
 Ah-Fing you are speaking?" 
 
 "Yes, who but he? You know him?" 
 
 "Well!" 
 
 "You do? How 1 strange! Bring him to me 
 come yourself with him it must be you who 
 brings him; yes, it must be you." 
 
 "What shall I say to him that will tell him 
 you desire his presence? It is a long journey, 
 doubly trying at this time of the year." 
 
 The other thought for a moment deeply. 
 
SUE CHUC 123 
 
 "You will telegraph him" this was not a 
 question, but a demand. 
 
 "Yes, but the messenger must ride fifty miles 
 to the nearest telegraph station. That will take 
 two days." 
 
 The sick man murmured impatiently and 
 groaned at the delay. 
 
 The Doctor had taken out his notebook, and, 
 pencil in hand, waited for the message. 
 
 Choo-Dan weakly wiped the big beads of sweat 
 from his forehead and began: 
 
 "I claim fulfillment of pact. Choo-Dan." 
 
 Dr. Fun waited a second. "No more?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "No, that is all that is needed to bring either 
 of us to the other from the ends of the earth." 
 
 The Doctor added the necessary address, and 
 later, before sending, added on his own account 
 a message indicating the gravity of his patient's 
 condition, and signed his own name as well, saw 
 the messenger started on his long ride, and took 
 his way back to the hospital. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ;S HE entered his office a burly, 
 broad-shouldered figure rose from 
 the couch, and a big, booming, 
 cordial voice rang out: 
 
 "Doctor Ah-Day-Fun? Pardon 
 the lack of formality I have shown 
 by making myself at home this way in strange 
 quarters, but I bring satisfactory credentials from 
 our friend, Madame Jay-San, who vouches for my 
 eminent respectibility. I am Doctor Conrad." 
 
 Dr. Fun grasped the outstretched hand and 
 shook it cordially ; he had heard much of this man, 
 of his ability, his skill, and his wonderful bravery. 
 "What good star has guided you here, Doctor 
 Conrad? I was only yesterday hoping against 
 hope that I should come across some greatly 
 needed help in a troublesome case. When did 
 you get in? But let me order lights; this semi- 
 darkness is more trying than total, and I see 
 you did not order the fire kept up well." 
 
 "Oh, my dear fellow, this room seemed heav 
 enly comfortable and that hard leather couch of 
 
SUE CHUC 125 
 
 yours a veritable bed of roses after the freezing 
 and jolting I've had." 
 
 When the big lamp was brought and the light 
 poured upon them. Dr. Conrad stared in wonder 
 at the other. "What a start you gave me," he 
 said, after a minute's amazed silence. "I could 
 have sworn you were the Doctor Ah-Fing of 
 thirty years ago." 
 
 Dr. Fun's eyes opened, and his breath came 
 quickly, as though the heart had accelerated its 
 speed. 
 
 "Amazing amazing and there is not even a 
 relationship, is there, else surely I should have 
 heard of it from Madame Jay?" 
 
 "Not that I am aware of," Dr. Fun answered 
 as carelessly as he could. 
 
 "And now come and sit in this chair before 
 the fire and tell me of your trip and its object, 
 for of course you have not taken it for the mere 
 pleasure of my society, much as I should like to 
 flatter myself on that score," and he smiled upon 
 the other, who had now seated himself before 
 the fire that the servant had started into life. 
 
 At that smile Dr. Conrad murmured again, 
 "Amazing, amazing," and continued to stare up 
 at him; then seeing a fleeting expression that 
 might mean discomfort under his gaze, he turned 
 
126 SUE CHUC 
 
 it to the fire and held out his capable brown 
 hands to the dancing flames. 
 
 "Yes, I came on matters other than social," 
 he laughed, "although to tell you the truth I 
 did a deal of thinking over the meeting with 
 you, for you can tell me as one who has seen 
 some things I have only got second-hand through 
 the reports. And, too, Madame Jay was very 
 insistent that I meet you." Here again he looked 
 at the younger man, thinking, "and I don't won 
 der now. What does it mean? It's too strong 
 to be mere accident why they have the identical 
 tricks of manner, of voice, of gesture " and 
 he again turned his gaze to the fire, and con 
 tinued: 
 
 "Can you put me up?" 
 
 "Of course, of course," assented Dr. Fun cor 
 dially. "You know I myself have been extraor 
 dinarily fortunate in regard to lodgings ; my hosts 
 are the kindest of kind people, whose big house 
 has more rooms in it than they use, by a score." 
 
 "Natives?" 
 
 "The wife the man is European, but has lived 
 for forty years here and it is difficult to realize 
 that he is not a native; wears the dress, you know, 
 and all that." 
 
 "Whew!" whistled the Doctor, "so it's Grant," 
 answering a look of questioning in the other's 
 
SUE CHUC 127 
 
 eyes, "I don't know him personally, but I knew, 
 rather well the son that was a tragic case. How 
 do they the father and mother bear it?" 
 
 "I have no manner of finding out, nothing has 
 been said to me, no reference even made to him 
 or his death since my arrival." 
 
 "Ah! Yes, of course it would be so," mused 
 the Doctor. "I've lived the better part of a 
 life-time here," he added, stirring up the coals 
 with the heavy poker, his great shoulders humped 
 and his mane of silvering hair glinting in the 
 light of the fire, "and many's the time IVe made 
 up my mind to cut it and go home, but" with 
 another laugh "I've never got further than 
 Japan en route without being homesick for it all 
 again. Guess I must have been a Chinaman last 
 time," he said, with a whimsical smile. "Then 
 came along Mehitable, my wife," he added, "and 
 her heart was set upon the heathen as she called 
 them, and she was certain she was elected to be 
 the Lord's right hand in showing them the error 
 of their ways, so well, we've just stayed along, 
 through famine and plagues, through uprisings 
 and pestilence. Sometimes it's been nip and tuck, 
 and sometimes it's seemed that maybe for the 
 boys' sakes we ought to go back. 
 
 "Yes," he nodded, "we've two big, strapping 
 chaps of twelve and thirteen, who are up in 
 
128 SUE CHUC 
 
 Shanghai now at school; next year they are going 
 to Europe and later will study medicine. I de 
 cided upon Germany for them; like the severity 
 of the training given in that country. Mehitable 
 declares that they are both marked with the 
 passion for surgery, and it looks that way." It 
 was noticeable that in speaking of his wife an 
 added note of tenderness crept into the deep, 
 kind voice, and Dr. Fun remembered the story 
 of their love and marriage as Madame Jay had 
 told to him, with a quick pang so had he 
 wished to love a woman. 
 
 "But dear me, here I sit giving you all the 
 details of my family affairs as though they could 
 be of any interest to you," and again the big 
 laugh boomed out. 
 
 Fun reassured him and asked, "Are you fam 
 ished, will you come up to the house now and 
 get a tub and some dinner?" 
 
 "Will I?" and the figure rose with alacrity. 
 
 "Oh, oh ! and you did not intimate how hungry 
 you were," Fun chided. 
 
 "To tell the truth, I don't deserve to be, for 
 I stopped and got a bowl of stew" at a raising 
 of the other's eyebrows he nodded. "Yes, I know, 
 but the Chinese are such devilish good cooks, one 
 doesn't let oneself think of well, various things; 
 besides, I'm hardened to sights, smells, and germs. 
 
SUE CHUC 129 
 
 Heavens, man! One must so become if one is 
 to get about here in this land, you know." 
 
 After dinner that night, which was served in 
 the Doctor's sitting-room with the table drawn 
 up before a cheerful open fire, they discussed the 
 problems of their profession, its fascination, its 
 magnet qualities, and these men were born physi 
 cians, born surgeons, and each recognized in the 
 other the fact. 
 
 Finally the talk drifted to different subjects 
 and Dr. Conrad drew the other out to tell his 
 story, all the time watching the fine, eager face, 
 the eyes that were so like those other eyes, the 
 flash of the strong white teeth, as the clean-cut 
 lips widened in a smile, and as the story proceeded 
 he dropped his hands to the arms of his chair 
 and leaned forward in interest. At its finish he 
 whistled softly "That may account for well, 
 for several things," he said. 
 
 "Yes, you think so?" Fun's voice was studiously 
 restrained, but the color came and went in his 
 cheeks and his lips trembled slightly. 
 
 "I thought aloud?" inquired Dr. Conrad. 
 "Yes, I see that I did well, the cat's out of the 
 bag now, I see by your answer that you have 
 thought of the same possibility." 
 
 "Only with a hope today," and Fun related the 
 
1 30 SUE CHUC 
 
 conversation with Choo-Dan and the purport of 
 the telegram. 
 
 "You would be glad? But of course you 
 would. That is what a friend of mine would 
 designate a fool question." 
 
 "Glad beyond words. Never have I felt so 
 strong an inclination, so deep a respect and admi 
 ration for any one as for Dr. Ah-Fing," and with 
 a smile that lighted up his face and shone from 
 his eyes, "to tell the truth, I'd give much to be 
 related to Madame Jay, to have the right to be 
 mothered by her what an aunt to have I" 
 
 "Yes," laughed the Doctor, "she's as good as 
 an entire family. My Mehitable declares she's 
 a saint, but I think she's better a real live 
 woman, loving, tender, helpful, the which some 
 of the saints are not. 
 
 "Of course, if this were story-book instead of 
 real life, you should by rights have been kept in 
 total ignorance of it all until the dramatic mo 
 ment arrived when that sinner, Choo, announced 
 you parent and child. But tell me, are you real 
 izing that at least a month must elapse before 
 Dr. Ah-Fing can get here, even if he is able to 
 leave immediately?" 
 
 "Yes, I realize ; and it's going to be the longest 
 month I have had in my life; of course it's 
 
SUE CHUC 131 
 
 foolish to count on it too much, it may be but 
 a coincidence." 
 
 "Don't believe it," announced the other, "too 
 many dove-tailing facts, besides the resemblance. 
 
 "Tomorrow I must get through with some of 
 the business that brought me here, then I want 
 you to show me through the hospital. Have not 
 seen it for some years. And now, if you will point 
 the way, I will go bedwards. This old place has 
 as many corridors as a baronial castle and I lost 
 myself twice coming in from my room here. 
 
 "Yes, IVe everything anyone could want, too 
 much comfort, it will spoil me. We live pretty 
 simply up our way, you know, and don't run 
 much to embroidered satin coverlids. Good 
 night," and looking Fun in the eyes he added, 
 "Get a good night's sleep, you need it," 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 FTER the big kindly man had been 
 shown on his way, Fun returned 
 to his sitting-room and sat down 
 before the fire and fell into a state 
 of semi-consciousness where the 
 past became the actual; he lived 
 through his boyhood, through the years of am 
 bition and promise, through the crisis that marked 
 the wrong turning; went along the road as 
 it turned, always leading down and further down, 
 until his days had become mere reflections 
 of the preceding poppy-drugged nights; then of 
 his meeting little Sue-Chuc, of the day, when, to 
 give pleasure to a wronged and weary little girl, 
 he had pulled up and for the nonce become the 
 old Ah-day-Fun, and on and on his fancy car 
 ried him, through the years of work and study in 
 Europe the tremendous work, for he had to 
 redeem those lost years and had to go to bed 
 each night so body- brain- and heart-weary that 
 the little demon voice calling, ever calling for 
 its dream-stuff should be unheeded. Would he 
 
SUE CHUC 133 
 
 ever have stilled that voice, so long as life should 
 last would he have to fight it, mayhap? At any 
 rate the fight should be won, and by him. Each 
 day that determination rose strong in him and 
 helped him through. He had found that it must 
 be a day-to-day fight, no chance was he given to 
 forget the danger, to grow weak or careless. He 
 smiled grimly. 
 
 The clock struck the second hour of the morn 
 ing and he roused from his musings, rose from 
 the chair, raked together the embers still glow 
 ing, and turned to put out the light. As he stood 
 with one hand outstretched towards the globe, his 
 eyes rested upon the picture of the woman in the 
 panel photograph opposite his desk and the pic 
 tured eyes gazed back into his; the peculiarity of 
 that picture was that those remarkable eyes fol 
 lowed, some trick of focus or light, always from 
 any point of view one could turn around and see 
 the eyes upon one. 
 
 Theodocia Melvin had laughed over it as she 
 gave it to him, saying "You'll have to mind your 
 Ps and Qs, boy, for you can't escape my eyes!" 
 
 For the first time he could look at the pictured 
 face without the surge of feeling that had been his 
 companion for so many years, with no bitterness 
 of renunciation how could one renounce that 
 which one had no hope of ever attaining? with- 
 
134 SUE CHUC 
 
 out the longing even, he felt, and with a quick 
 heart throb he realized that his freedom from 
 that old obsession was come. Was it a crime 
 against that years-old passion that had been his 
 through drugged dreams and hard struggling 
 awakenings? Then he heard again in memory 
 her voice as she said to him that day when he had 
 made one last effort to rouse her at least to a real 
 ization of what it was she stood for to him: 
 
 'Tis a mad, mad obsession, Fun ; I am old 
 enough to be your mother, boy, and the day will 
 come when you will look back on this madness 
 of yours for what it is." 
 
 The day had come. 
 
 The following day brought one of Sue's let 
 ters, and his look, as he held the square en 
 velope in his hand and saw the familiar char 
 acteristic writing so instinct with purpose, with 
 force, was different from what it had been at 
 any previous time. 
 
 They, Dr. Conrad and he, were back in his 
 sitting room after a strenuous day and the tea 
 tray was on the small table by the fire in front 
 of which they sat, when the servant brought in 
 the mail. Dr. Conrad's eyes were upon him as 
 he took up the letter and they noted the expres 
 sion of gladness was it something more? with 
 which he eagerly opened and read through the 
 
SUE CHUG 135 
 
 many pages, after a brief apology. As he came 
 to the last, he threw back his head and laughed, 
 a clear, ringing, boyish laugh that made the years 
 drop away from him. 
 
 "This is from the small" "sister" he started 
 to say, then amended it to "girl I told you of; 
 she is taking matters very much into her own 
 hands, I see by it, and already assuming the po 
 sition of mentor and friend of some half dozen 
 young people, the group containing an old China 
 man of sixty and a young scamp of twelve." At 
 the Doctor's interested expression he said, 
 "Would you care to see it?" 
 
 The Doctor held out his hand and Fun gave 
 the letter to him. Glancing first at the signa 
 ture, the Doctor turned to the first page: 
 
 "New York, November I2th. 
 "FuN DEAR: 
 
 "You are absolutely exigent in your demands 
 for future details. I had been thinking up to 
 the time your last letter came that you knew my 
 life like a book, and here comes a letter with 
 a list of questions like one of our old exams. 
 Aren't you ever going to be assured as to my abil 
 ity to keep well and nourished? Any one would 
 think, to read your questions, either that I had 
 been reduced to utter idiocy with no sense of 
 proportion, or was living on chocolate creams 
 
136 SUE CHUG 
 
 and ice-cream soda; so, just to set your mind at 
 rest on both points, I will give you a sample menu 
 of one of our days. 
 
 "One morning I get breakfast, one morning 
 Chum does. We generally have eggs in some 
 form, toast, fruit, and tea or coffee. For lunch 
 eon, for instance to-day, we had broiled lamb 
 chops, baked potatoes, apple sauce, and one piece 
 of jelly cake each. For dinner, it being my day 
 to cater, we had for piece de resistance one of 
 our casserole dishes foundation, minced beef 
 with macaroni, onion, carrots and turnips cooked 
 in the same casserole, which is kept hermetically 
 sealed during the process of cooking and the cover 
 removed only when it is on the table. You see, 
 that gives us meat and vegetables. Then we had 
 stewed apricots and home-made cookies for des 
 sert. 
 
 "Our table is really pretty as can be. We got 
 the Japanese porcelain because it's effective and 
 because it's cheap, and we always twist a fresh 
 serviette around our casserole so it looks festive. 
 Likewise, we avoid a lot of dishwashing by the 
 casserole process, simplifies things mightily, and 
 neither Chum nor I want to waste time over un 
 necessary work. 
 
 "We vary the menu, and we keep in mind the 
 nutritive values of the foodstuffs and the proper 
 
SUE CHUC 137 
 
 balance. You see we are not suffering is your 
 physician's soul satisfied? I assure you there is 
 the right amount of carbohydrates and all the 
 others. 
 
 "Yes, we are working hard, but not overwork 
 ing, and I, for one, get eight hours' sleep each 
 night, or if any get mislaid I make them up on 
 Sunday. Those precious sleep hours! And now 
 may I tell you about the other and much more 
 interesting things? 
 
 "I mentioned to you that we were to meet some 
 of the Settlement workers, friends of that nice 
 Miss Tobin. Well, we have, and such a de 
 lightful lot of girls and women as they are, and 
 they have taken to us as we to them, so that we 
 feel our sociable time all too short. One in par 
 ticular has won my heart. She's not exactly one 
 of the workers that is, she does not give up all 
 of her life to the work as do most of the others, 
 but she teaches in the night classes and has a 
 class of girls who think the sun rises and sets in 
 her. She's one of six sisters, awfully rich once 
 had horses, carriages, maids, governesses, trips 
 to Europe, and all the rest of it. Then some 
 thing happened and everything went, so the girls 
 had to earn their own living, and you ought to 
 hear them tell of it when they 'reminisce.' 
 
 "Now all of them are married but my girl, 
 
138 SUE CHUC 
 
 and one sister who's as good as, being engaged 
 and so taken up with the plans for her new life 
 that she's not much comfort to my girl, and 
 after the wedding, which is to take place in June, 
 the other, whose name, by the way, is Phoebe 
 Brenning, is going to be left alone, for she won't 
 go to live with any of the married sisters, al 
 though she seems to be devoted to them one and 
 all, and there is going to be a pretty lonely girl 
 in that little apartment. Chum and I are planning 
 to have her here if she'll come. 
 
 "The Holdings are going to Europe to live. 
 It seems that Dr. Holding's old father relented 
 before he died and left all his millions to the 
 Doctor, and, instead of sailing in and enjoying 
 them, what do you think they are planning to do ? 
 Well, they are going to all of the big capitals 
 to see no, not pictures and fascinating old build 
 ings, and all that, but to see how the very poor 
 live, what are the problems, and what the means 
 used to deal with them. Then, after they have 
 studied it all, they are going to settle down in the 
 worst place, where they think there is most work 
 to do and fewest workers with knowledge and 
 money, and spend those millions in the work. 
 
 "I gasped when I heard it. Did you ever see 
 or know of such colossal single-mindedness? And 
 the wonderful part of it is that it does not seem 
 
SUE CHUC 139 
 
 anything extraordinary to them or, as far as I 
 can discover, to any one of the lot. They have 
 three of the loveliest children you ever saw, per 
 fect little cherubs. 
 
 "Now for a piece of news: Your Mrs. Theo- 
 docia, and their Mrs. Theodocia, is coming to 
 New York shortly, and I shall see her. I'm 
 dreadfully excited over it. Do you suppose she 
 will like me oh, do you? Don't believe I ever 
 so wanted any one to, except you, in my life 
 before. 
 
 "You never saw such a quantity of protegees 
 and adopted babies and children as there are 
 among these people ; every one more or less seems 
 to be bent on rescuing sick and crippled and woe 
 ful little youngsters, and you would think it the 
 most natural thing in the world to go through 
 life picking up lost, strayed, and stolen babies, 
 and they don't make any fuss about it, either. 
 
 "I opened my eyes until the women roared at 
 me, one day, because they talked of Mary Tobin's 
 children. It seems she adopted the first one 
 years ago, and became so interested in baby tend 
 ing that when it got so it was too old to need 
 her much she was lonely, and she took another, 
 and now there are a round half-dozen up on her 
 farm getting round and rosy, and she runs up for 
 week-ends to play with them. Then, the married 
 
140 SUE CHUC 
 
 workers never mind adding some forlorn little 
 mite to their always well-filled nurseries, and no 
 one seems to think of germs or inherited procliv 
 ities or anything, in fact, but just kindness. Evi 
 dently their belief in the power of environment 
 is big. , 
 
 "Chum and I caught the fever and took in a 
 broken-legged, ugly, sore-eyed kitten, and it's re 
 sponding to our care so that you would never 
 know it for the same little animal. Heaven only 
 knows, we may yet take a baby! 
 
 "Oh, did I tell you that on one of my trips 
 out to 'Cosy Corner' I met one of the girls from 
 Miss Elliot's, and that she was so cordial to me, 
 and invited me to come and visit her at her home 
 which is only a mile from our little place ? It's 
 a big, gorgeous house set in the midst of acres 
 and acres of grounds and is built on the site of 
 the old farmhouse where her father was born. 
 Never knew she was particularly interested in me 
 at Miss Elliot's, but it seems she's shy and thought 
 / thought she was stupid, which, to be honest, 
 I did. Don't think so now. I told her I was 
 working like mad and had hardly a moment to 
 call my own, but she insisted and said she would 
 drive over and get me the following day Sun 
 day. She did, and I went. Had a very good 
 time, and her mother and father were charming 
 
SUE CHUC 141 
 
 to me. Something came up about my being Chi 
 nese, and the mother asked me if many of my 
 own countrywomen went in for college and a 
 profession. Said she knew of the Japanese nobil 
 ity having sent their daughters, in several in 
 stances, to Europe and America, but thought the 
 Chinese nobility more conservative. 
 
 "It did not strike me until later that she was 
 inferring me to be of noble birth, and when it 
 did I nearly had a fit laughing oh, oh, how de 
 licious ! If she could have seen Mai-den's rooms 
 in the Alley, and if she could have seen me when 
 I first knew you ugly little, flat-faced thing, look 
 ing precisely like a Japanese pug dog, all eyes 
 and mouth and no nose to speak of, dirty, no 
 clothes but those old greeney-black coat and trous 
 ers and an old piece of sacking for an apron, poor 
 red, cracked little paws, and half the time bare 
 feet, and old broken slippers to wear in cases of 
 extreme dress-up ! 
 
 "Now I'm puzzled to know if I should by 
 rights explain things to them. I will think it 
 over and do what seems the right or necessary 
 thing to me. In answer to the father's questions 
 I told them how we came to have 'Cosy Corner,' 
 and that led up to old Tonkey-Lo and to the boys, 
 and I gave them in my very best style an account 
 of them all, which seemed to interest them greatly. 
 
142 SUE CHUC 
 
 Eleanor, that's the daughter, said she would go 
 to see them some day, especially to get acquainted 
 with the old Chinaman and Bub. She will prob 
 ably forget all about it, however, so I need not 
 worry about a descent upon them of a fashion 
 able young lady seated in a most up-to-date Victo 
 ria with the correctest of correct English coach 
 men and footmen on the box. All of which, 
 should it by chance occur, would fill old Tonkey- 
 Lo's soul with consternation. 
 
 "You guessed right, dear Fun, I do not like 
 Dr. Z., but as it's only a case of 'Dr. Fell,' and 
 I have no reason in the world for my antagonism, 
 shall not let the feeling get the better of me. He 
 lectures well and I learn under him, appreciate his 
 gifts, but still can't look at him. It's absurd, 
 and I know it. Mrs. Holding, who knows him 
 and saw me meet him once at the Settlement, rec 
 ognized my feeling, and when I explained what, 
 after all, is so unexplainable, she said: 'Yes, those 
 things occur. Probably you two hurt each other 
 last time and have brought back a memory of 
 it that manifests in this embodiment as instinctive 
 antipathy on your part. Doubtless you were the 
 one to inflict the hurt. I notice it is, as a rule, 
 the ones who hurt who have the sense of wrong 
 most developed !' Then, when my eyes had begun 
 to 'pop,' as the boys say, she was called away and 
 
SUE CHUG 143 
 
 I have not had a moment from that day to this 
 to ask her what on earth she meant. Never sup 
 posed she, of all women, was given to 'spooki- 
 ness,' she appears the quintessence of practicality. 
 "Do you know, Fun, you have never told me 
 how you came to met Mrs. Theodocia. Must I 
 not ask? Don't want to be a nuisance, but should 
 so like to know. Every time I go to see the boys 
 I hear more about her, and won't I just love to 
 see her in the flesh! Your 
 
 "SUE." 
 
 "P. S. I opened this to tell you of the awful 
 thing that has happened : Just heard from Casey, 
 who came up especially to tell me. The horses 
 ran away when Eleanor and her mother were out 
 yesterday, and the carriage was overturned; both 
 Eleanor and her mother were badly injured, the 
 mother fatally. Oh, I am so grieved. Will drop 
 things and go out there on the 5.10 train. I might 
 be able to be of some use to Eleanor. S." 
 
 Dr. Conrad folded the sheets, returned them, 
 and, lying back on his chair, said: "Good stuff, 
 there, Doctor; how alive that girl is. She will 
 be a big force in the work here if she comes," 
 he added. 
 
 "If she comes? Why why, she is working 
 for that very thing, you know." 
 
 "Yes, I know; but three years is a long time, 
 
144 SUE CHUC 
 
 and it just struck me as I read that letter, that, 
 with her very broad outlook, and the possibili 
 ties for interesting work right there she might, 
 maybe, get to think this rather special field lim 
 ited and stay there." He watched Fun's face as 
 he said this, and saw the sudden gravity that 
 chased the laugh from his lips, and saw the look 
 of apprehension in the eyes, inwardly chuckling. 
 
 "Yes, my friend, were I you, I would, I think, 
 get that young lady to come out here much sooner 
 than was planned." 
 
 u But her diploma, Doctor!" 
 
 "Yes," dryly answered Dr. Conrad, "to be sure, 
 her diploma ! Well, well, time will tell and now 
 if you'll let me see a photograph of her I'll be 
 obliged to you. She described herself so minutely, 
 if without embellishment, am rather curious to 
 see what a camera makes of her." 
 
 Fun's hand went involuntarily toward his 
 pocket, then stayed itself, and, walking to his 
 desk, he took from a drawer a framed photo 
 graph and handed it to Dr. Conrad. 
 
 "Umph this the only one?" 
 
 "No, I have another, but I cannot get it at 
 present. It is, eh it is going to be more suitably 
 framed." 
 
 "I see, I see." And the Doctor smiled under 
 cover of his hand; then sat studying the picture. 
 
SUE CHUC 145 
 
 At last he handed it back and looked keenly at 
 the other. 
 
 "She's that rara avis, a beautiful ugly woman, 
 than which nothing is more dangerous. She does 
 not seem ugly to you?" he inquired. 
 
 "No, not ugly " 
 
 "Beautiful?" 
 
 "Yes, I think she is beautiful." 
 
 "She is, my dear fellow; but she's ugly, too 
 her description of herself was perfect, as far as 
 it went. Magnetism?" 
 
 "Oh, that yes," and Fun smiled. 
 
 "Umph yes, to be sure there would be that. 
 I see that our friend Mrs. Melvin is to be in 
 New York soon, and will meet Miss Sue; should 
 like to watch the meeting and then get Theodocia 
 off in a corner and hear what she has to tell. 
 Never have known any one who read character so 
 correctly as she does only knew her to fail once 
 in an absolutely correct reading and that would 
 make a story in itself. 
 
 "Thanks, greatly, for letting me read the let 
 ter from the little one she's a wee thing, I be 
 lieve." 
 
 "Yes, only to here" and Fun touched lightly 
 with his finger a spot on his breast. 
 
 "Yes? So little umph! What one might call 
 heart-high; well, the little women are very ap- 
 
146 SUE CHUC 
 
 pealing to us big fellows," he added, with a 
 twinkle. 
 
 "And now if you will take me to the labora 
 tory I will take great joy in demonstrating to you 
 the truth of those statements I made you to-day, 
 and which, by your face, I plainly saw you po 
 litely doubted." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 iR. AH-FING answered the tele 
 gram immediately, and the answer 
 was directed to Dr. Fun, who read 
 it and took it to Choo-Dan. The 
 man reached eager hands toward 
 him as he entered the room, and 
 Fun handed him the dispatch. The wording was 
 most direct : 
 
 "Leaving to-day travel as rapidly as possible 
 tell patient. An-FiNG." 
 
 Choo-Dan gave a long sigh that was almost a 
 groan, but his face had cleared and brightened. 
 "I can sleep now," he said, and almost straight 
 away closed his eyes and fell into sleep. 
 
 Dr. Fun took the chair by his bedside, deter 
 mined to stay and watch by him, for the sudden 
 desire for sleep and its immediate coming showed 
 to his practised eye the extreme tension under 
 which the sick man had been living, and he wished 
 to assure himself that the utter relaxation brought 
 in its train healing properties. So he gently 
 clasped the thin ivory-colored wrist, and with fin- 
 
148 SUE CHUC 
 
 ger on pulse, waited and watched. At last, with 
 a nod of assent, as though to some question of 
 an invisible questioner, he dropped the wrist 
 gently and sat back in the chair. 
 
 His gaze traveled about the big room with its 
 strange medley of furniture. This had been the 
 patient's private apartment, a room from which 
 every one was excluded but his old servant, up 
 to the time of his illness, but as he regained a 
 slight degree of strength and could be moved with 
 safety, he had ordered a bed set up in this, his 
 particular room. Fun, looking about it and con 
 trasting it with the remainder of the house, 
 which, so much of it as he had seen, made abso 
 lutely no concessions to foreign taste but was 
 distinctly and characteristically Chinese, almost 
 barbarically sumptuous, yet strictly of the land, 
 could but marvel at this newest proof to him of 
 the truth of his theory of the many selves each of 
 us possesses. 
 
 Here was every indication of the man of schol 
 arly tastes; of the man with a passion for scien 
 tific investigation, of wide culture, deepest inter 
 est in all of the world's problems. The cases that 
 lined the walls held an astonishing array of books. 
 Fun, rising softly, went over to the opposite 
 side and glanced at the titles, and his eyebrows 
 rose in the manner so peculiar to him in deepen- 
 
SUE CHUC 149 
 
 ing amazement as he read, and in reading recog 
 nized what a veritable imprisonment had been the 
 long years to a man whose mind had possessed 
 such depth and breadth as to need this mental 
 food. No possibility of exchange of thought, 
 none of the stimulation from contact with other 
 minds of its kind how had the man stood it? 
 
 On the walls in the scant space left between 
 top of book-shelves and ceiling were a few pic 
 tures, simple little water-colors, amateurish to a 
 degree, yet carrying in their faded tones and misty 
 outlines a suggestion of delicacy of handling, of 
 loving appreciation of the beauties- the unskilled 
 hand was depicting, that made the small sketches 
 charming. 
 
 A great roll-top desk, closed, stood near one 
 window, and, in front of an open fireplace, an al 
 most unprecedented thing in a Chinese house, were 
 placed two chairs, one a big arm chair worn by 
 long years of use into almost a mold of the 
 form so used to it; opposite, a light, rather fragile 
 chair, whose back and seat were of the cross-stitch 
 Berlin woolwork so dear to the hearts of our 
 mothers in the early days of their young woman 
 hood; and, hanging to the knobs of one of the 
 uprights at the back of the chair, was a faded 
 and worn little flowered silk bag. 
 
 Immediately Dr. Fun recognized the little frail 
 
1 50 SUE CHUC 
 
 
 chair as the room's shrine, saw in fancy the slight 
 
 young figure that doubtless the sick man had felt 
 was there on it by his side. The small silk work- 
 bag contained thimble and silk reel, and who 
 knows what trifle, to love's eyes greater than any 
 museum held and if his thought was founded 
 on fact the little figure that his fancy saw in 
 the chair was his mother. His breath came 
 quickly the young mother whose heart had been 
 too frail to bear the burden of the knowledge 
 that her first-born had been stolen, and so had 
 broken. Science called that sudden stopping by 
 a learned name, and had facts and figures to prove 
 it a disease but love knew it for what it was in 
 truth. 
 
 Just then the sick man stirred and turned his 
 head toward the side of the room where Dr. Fun 
 stood, opened his eyes and looked at the young 
 figure standing with one hand laid as though in 
 caress upon the back of the little chair. 
 
 There was a fire in the fireplace, and the danc 
 ing flames cast a flicker over the face of the man 
 that made the features look as though struggling 
 for composure, and Choo-Dan sat up, hanging 
 to the bed curtains for support, the better to see 
 that face so like the one he had not looked upon 
 for thirty-odd years, and that he knew he must 
 
SUE CHUC 151 
 
 look upon so soon. What would he see written 
 on it, as he told his tale? 
 
 The days passed one week, two weeks, three 
 weeks, and now any time they might expect to 
 hear that Dr. Ah-Fing was within a day's travel. 
 
 The time had been a trying one. Fun had 
 worked feverishly through the days and at night 
 walked and walked through the most densely pop 
 ulated parts of the great city, trying for distrac 
 tion, for fatigue so great that, when at last he 
 would sink upon his bed he might sleep. He forced 
 himself to see, to miss nothing of the various 
 phases of the native life, the life of his people, 
 he reminded himself constantly. Each ugly, fes 
 tering sore in the city's body he forced himself 
 to observe, to dwell upon, to formulate ways and 
 means for healing; and, as he thought, there 
 grew in his heart the knowledge that here and 
 now was the work indeed for every faculty he 
 possessed. Never had the realization come to 
 him so clearly before, as during those long, long 
 walks. 
 
 He had said often to himself each time that 
 a doubt of the value of his work had crept into 
 his mind that the work he had selected to be 
 his life's expression was good; each time that the 
 sense of aloneness had come to him, that there 
 
152 SUE CHUC 
 
 could be no loneliness where his brothers' need 
 was so great; but never, never had the realization 
 come to him of its greatness and of his power 
 to do much until he had been driven by his own 
 need for distraction into the streets those long, 
 twisted, narrow streets, with their multitudinous 
 shops lit with lights that only brought out more 
 strongly the fact of their crass pandering to the 
 human demand for alleviation, for help to bear 
 the cross that fate had fastened to the patient 
 shoulders. 
 
 The certain air of cheerfulness, he grew to real 
 ize, was in a measure due to the coloring of most 
 of the goods for sale. The entire gamut would 
 be run in the windows of a crockery shop, tiers 
 on tiers of bowls, in nests and singly, ranged up 
 to the apex of the pyramid of shelves, brilliant 
 scarlet, deep yellow, strong greens and blues; 
 dishes of shapes and sizes not seen outside of the 
 native wares, every variety of tea pots, tea bowls, 
 and comfit jars. Scattered among the articles of 
 service were chubby, placid-faced porcelain and 
 pottery goods, grotesque, yet in color brilliant 
 and adding another note to the scale. 
 
 How his people loved and brought into daily, 
 hourly use in their lives the strong, crude color 
 ings. The long street that was his particular fa 
 vorite because it was so universal a marketing 
 
SUE CHUC 153 
 
 place after the night had come, held its contrasts 
 so great that it was kaleidoscopic in its effect upon 
 him. Here came the poorer of the city's people 
 at an hour when the finer and richer shops had 
 closed their doors and drawn the heavy sliding 
 blinds into place before their windows. Here 
 was no aristocracy of trade, no districts given 
 over to special trades, but a jumble of shops 
 lighted by their smoking torches or lamps. 
 
 A roast-meat shop whose smoky interior was a 
 harmony in browns; weird, twisted, and con 
 torted shapes of bird and fish and flesh, smoked, 
 salted, pickled, in tint from palest umber to burnt 
 sienna and darkest shadowed tones. 
 
 The meat-ball and fried-potato shops held his 
 interest. The half-naked men standing back of 
 the big kettles of boiling grease with the glow 
 of the red-hot charcoal flushing their yellow skins 
 and the grayish smoke from the cooking food wa 
 vering across them in uncertain clouds. Always 
 were these shops busy, and, in the groups that 
 stood to watch or to buy, to take away in brown 
 speckled paper cornucopias, or to stand at the 
 long counter and eat the food hot from the fat, 
 were many types, types quite unfamiliar to him 
 during his years in the San Francisco Chinese 
 Quarter. 
 
 He was constantly being surprised at the indi- 
 
154 SUE CHUC 
 
 cations he got of the tremendous vitality of the 
 race. There would be old, old men and women, 
 carrying on their faces and bodies the signs of 
 disease long borne t yet with the spirit of desire, 
 of acquisitiveness, a joy in the mere animal appe 
 tites that showed how deep down was the fountain 
 of vitality in their beings. And he marveled at 
 the wonderful staying power of the race, the grip 
 it had on the Cosmic force that made it, in spite 
 of plague, pestilence, chronic diseases of many 
 kinds, a race that peopled its quarter of the globe 
 faster than the scourges that came to it cleared 
 its cities and fields. What was this race working 
 out of, or into, he wondered? 
 
 He liked standing just back of the crowd of 
 women and children who gathered in front of 
 the silk or fruit shops, to hear the comments and 
 watch the never-stopping game that went on be 
 tween youth, with its demands for its own, and 
 age, with its tolerance and inclination toward in 
 dulgence of the youthful fancy, and many a pretty 
 picture did he bring back. One in particular 
 clung to his memory: 
 
 Quite close to the railing that kept off too eager 
 shoppers from the small stock of cheap silks of a 
 certain small shop, stood an oldish woman and a 
 girl, poor, but not of the very poor, decently 
 dressed, with neatly done hair, and tucked into 
 
SUE CHUC 155 
 
 the great flattened toil that hung over the side of 
 the girl's small-shapely head was placed a wrought 
 silver filigree rose, new evidently, as one reddened 
 hand ever and anon reached up to make certain 
 of its safety. The two, mother and daughter 
 seemingly, were looking with longing eyes at a 
 piece of prune-colored satin, and Fun listened to 
 the dialogue that ensued. 
 
 The girl, with a long sigh: * 'Tis useless my 
 eyes ache from longingly looking let's go, 
 mother." 
 
 "Nay, wait a moment, child of impatience! It 
 may be that we can get enough for the coat, and, 
 with apple-green facings, you would find favor in 
 Chell-Fen's eyes," and her eyes lifted to the round 
 young face beside her attested as to the favor 
 found in her own eyes by this daughter. 
 
 The girl looked wistfully at the satin and sighed 
 again, and said again, "Come, mother; let us go." 
 
 The older woman was deep in calculation, and 
 began to explain to her how it might be managed, 
 reciting, as though it were a litany, the list of in 
 gredients that might with safety be left out of the 
 dishes for the husband and father and the many 
 sons. 
 
 "What am I a famous cook for, if I cannot 
 fool the palates of these men children?" she said, 
 with a movement of the shoulders indicative of 
 
1 56 SUE CHUC 
 
 uttermost scorn of the masculine discernment, and 
 then she added, her face brightening as though in 
 sudden memory, 
 
 "Old fool that I am! there is my burial-dress 
 money; what will I need of fine clothing when my 
 body is put into its box?" and then she added 
 cheerfully: "we come of a family who live to 
 twice my age, so mayhap I will find the chance to 
 save enough before that time anyway." 
 
 "Mother" the voice of the girl was eager and 
 the soft cream of her cheeks was flushed "oh, 
 
 mother, if Chell-Fen " she paused and the 
 
 two women looked into each other's eyes and 
 without another word walked into the shop. Fun 
 watched them as they made their purchase and 
 saw them, with the precious package, mingle with 
 the crowd again, thinking, "Luck to you, little 
 maiden with the eager eyes; poverty has its com 
 pensations when it is not allied with suffering; if 
 the little girl were rich she would not be able to 
 have her Chell-Fen, perhaps, but some other se 
 lected for her." 
 
 Yes, the streets were become his favorite stroll 
 and his notebook was filled with jottings. His 
 keen eyes lost no single point and his brain was 
 busy with plans for help; and so the days had 
 passed and he knew that within a few hours, at 
 
SUE CHUG 157 
 
 most, he should see the man he hoped to be able 
 to call Father. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 (MESSAGE had come, and Fun was 
 walking up and down his office, one 
 afternoon, when the door opened 
 and, roused from his revery, he 
 turned at the sound and saw the 
 tall, stately figure of the man his 
 thoughts had been busy with. With a quick for 
 ward step he grasped the extended hand and 
 looked into the face so like his own. 
 
 "Ah, Doctor Fun; this is good, a welcome and 
 a bright fire. I am cold to the very marrow of 
 old bones. No, not too tired; we learn to save 
 ourselves as we go on. Thanks" as Fun pushed 
 forward a chair into the light and warmth of 
 the fire. 
 
 "May I, shall I, order yon some food?" Fun 
 asked. His voice was uneven, and his eyes shone, 
 two spots burned on his cheeks, and Dr. Ah-Fing 
 looked curiously at him. 
 
 "No, Doctor! I am not ill, only glad, very glad, 
 to see you. My patient is counting the hours until 
 your arrival." 
 
SUE CHUG 159 
 
 The older man's eyes dwelt intently upon him. 
 "Yes? Tell me of him. But first order me a 
 bowl of strong soup." And when the other had 
 gone from the room he sat looking into the fire. 
 He had been struck before with the resemblance 
 between Fun and himself, but never as now, and 
 his still strong white teeth bit into the underlip as 
 he thought of what it would have meant to him 
 to have had a son such as this and, with a sigh, 
 he turned toward him as he re-entered, carrying 
 himself the tray upon which was the bowl of 
 soup and the plate of bread. 
 
 "I can vouch for its goodness, Doctor," he said, 
 u but I regret to have nothing else to offer you 
 here that you would care for. Later, up at my 
 quarters, you will find a dinner more to your 
 liking, perhaps." 
 
 "I am an old campaigner, Doctor," the other 
 replied, and after a sip or two, "This is 'good, 
 indeed. You need not feel obliged to apologize. 
 And now, while I eat, do you tell me all of this 
 case from the beginning. But first I will tell you 
 that this man and I were once, many years ago, 
 dear to each other, or do you know that?" 
 
 "Yes, Choo-Dan told me of that." 
 
 The other asked no further question and Fun 
 related to him his first summons and all of the 
 successive steps to the sending of the telegram, 
 
160 SUE CHUC 
 
 related only the physical symptoms, touched not 
 at all upon their talk of other matters, and noth 
 ing that Dr. Ah-Fing said or no expression of 
 his face showed that he noticed the purely scientific 
 and technical exposition of the case. 
 
 When the story was finished he rose and said, 
 "And now, if you will take me, I am ready to go 
 to him." 
 
 "Are you not too fatigued? Would you not 
 better de'fer your visit until the morning?" 
 Again Fun's voice was beyond his control and 
 carried its note of eagerness. 
 
 Dr. Ah-Fing attributed it to relief at the advent 
 of a man of greater experience, and smiled as he 
 answered : 
 
 "No, let us go now. Then to-night we can talk 
 over the case. From what you tell me, I should 
 judge that you think Choo-Dan a very sick man, 
 and the fact of his having broken the silence of 
 over thirty years to beg me to come to him proves 
 to me that he is a very sick man." 
 
 When they crossed the threshold leading from 
 the street into the splendid courtyard, Fun saw 
 Dr. Ah-Fing glance quickly about as though to 
 judge from the appearance of the home-settings 
 how far from the standard they had possessed in 
 those long ago days this old friend had come. 
 
 At the house door, which was opened by Choo- 
 
SUE CHUC 161 
 
 Dan's body servant, for a moment Di\ Ah-Fing's 
 eyes met and held the other's, then the Doctor's 
 face softened into the smile that made his clean- 
 cut severity so beautiful, and his voice with the 
 cordial note in it said: 
 
 "Ah, Len, so you are at your post faithfully, 
 as of old!" 
 
 The servant's immobile face broke into a mo 
 mentary ripple of expression and he bowed low 
 as he answered: 
 
 "Unto death, Master Ah-Fing." 
 
 At the door of the sick man's chamber, Fun hes 
 itated a moment. 
 
 "Will you call me when if you need me," he 
 said. "I will wait your summons in this room," 
 pointing across the corridor. 
 
 Dr. Ah-Fing assented gravely and, opening the 
 door, went within. 
 
 A half hour passed and Fun, counting the min 
 utes, his heart beating strongly, paced the long 
 room. The long-continued strain was telling 
 on him and he felt that he must pull himself 
 together to meet fittingly whatever of joy or 
 disappointment the moment of his summons 
 should bring him. And, thinking to divert his 
 mind from that other room and the subject upon 
 which its inmates were talking, he walked to the 
 window and looked out. 
 
1 62 SUE CHUG 
 
 The room he was in faced a small courtyard, 
 evidently at the back of the house, and in the early 
 dusk of the winter's night singularly bright. 
 Light poured into it from the windows of sev 
 eral rooms on the ground floor, forming splashes 
 and stains on the clean-swept tiles. In the cor 
 ners were piled high the masses of snow that had 
 but recently covered the pavement from the storm 
 of the previous day. The great tubs and jars 
 of shrubs and dwarfed trees swaddled in the straw 
 of their winter's covering were of odd and fanci 
 ful shapes, their grotesqueness and distortions hid 
 den and softened by the snow that rounded their 
 outlines. 
 
 Looking down and across from his window in 
 the second story, Fun could see directly into a 
 large room that was evidently the women's sitting 
 room, and in which were gathered now the old 
 mother, the wife and daughter, and several other 
 feminine figures whose relationship to the former 
 he did not know. It was the first time that he 
 had seen the interior of a Chinese house, whose 
 master was a man of wealth. His intercourse had 
 been almost entirely confined to the patients 
 who sought him at his office, or when he was 
 called to attend a patient in his own home it had 
 always been a man who required the services, and 
 he had, in the case of its being one of the well- 
 
SUE CHUC 163 
 
 to-do or wealthy class, seen but the patient's indi 
 vidual room. So now he noted with interest the 
 furnishings and arrangements. 
 
 The floor was covered with one of the im 
 mensely thick native carpets or large rugs, along 
 one side ran the Kang, its sides covered with dec 
 orated tiles. On some eight feet of its length 
 were cushions, showing it to be, as is usual, a 
 reclining place. A long, square-cornered table of 
 ironwood was directly in the room's center, and 
 on it a varied collection of articles: work boxes 
 opened, showing their contents of brightly tinted 
 silks and packages of silver and gold threads; a 
 tea outfit in what appeared to be Nankin ware ; a 
 fire box with tripod and corners, outer rim and 
 handles of wrought copper ; upon the tripod rested 
 a kettle, from the spout of which issued steam, 
 and, burning dully crimson in the bed of feathery 
 gray ashes beneath, was the charcoal. 
 
 A large lamp with painted silk shade over its 
 globe hung from the ceiling above the table. 
 Drawn up to the side facing the windows were 
 the mother and wife sipping from the bowls of 
 tea that one of the daughters had just handed 
 them and nibbling at the waferlike pink and col 
 ored cakes from the dishes before them. 
 
 Scattered about the room were square, rather 
 high-seated chairs, carved, inlaid, with silk-cush- 
 
1 64 SUE CHUC 
 
 ioned seats and foot rests. Several tall chests of 
 drawers were against the wall opposite the win 
 dows and two long strips of satin hung upon them, 
 banner fashion, with thick ivory-ended weight 
 sticks or rollers. A bracket lamp attached to the 
 wall threw its light upon the Kang and the colors 
 of the cushions on it came out dully in some spots, 
 glitteringly in others, where dull silk or bright 
 tinsel caught the gleams. 
 
 A very tall, completely open set of shelves 
 showed piles upon piles of the silk brocade cov 
 ered books that Fun knew to be filled with tales, 
 with precepts, with hair-raising, blood-curdling ac 
 counts of the gods, with poetry, and with pic 
 tures. Altogether a charmingly homelike room, 
 although so absolutely in the Eastern taste. And 
 the faces of the three women directly in his line 
 of vision held his gaze. In no land that he had 
 visited had he seen such placid faces, faces upon 
 which the strain and stress of life left so few 
 tell-tale marks; was it a lack of the capacity to 
 feel? Was it the effect of the centuries upon cen 
 turies of control that had given to them this gift 
 of calm acceptance of Life in its various mani 
 festations? His study of his people had not yet 
 taught him the answer. 
 
 Suddenly he was aware of the length of time 
 he had stood there, and he turned away from the 
 
SUE CHUC 165 
 
 window and began his restless pacing. The sound 
 of an opening door arrested his attention, and 
 he stopped, the blood pounding in his arteries. A 
 call yes it was for him. He left the room 
 and crossed the corridor where the door of that 
 other room was ajar, tapped lightly, barely waited 
 for the answering voices' assent to his entrance, 
 and pushing open the door stood looking in. 
 
 The sick man lay back on his pillows, his wax- 
 enly pallid face with its sunken, deeply shadowed 
 eyes masklike, as usual. Only the eyes seemed 
 alive and they, for the first time since he knew 
 the man, were peaceful; gone the hunted look, 
 gone the feverish, restless glitter, in their place 
 only a great peace. 
 
 The three men looked at each other in silence 
 for a long moment. Then Dr. Ah-Fing, his 
 voice tremulous but glad, said, stretching out both 
 hands : 
 
 "We will have many years' joy to make up, 
 Fun, and I am an old man. We cannot afford 
 to miss any of it, my son." 
 
 Fun took the outstretched hands and, after a 
 long look into the face, bowed his head and kissed 
 the hands with a reverent awe, a tenderness and 
 thankfulness he could find no words to express. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 HAT night father and son sat in 
 Fun's sitting room in the house on 
 the hill, and talked. Every detail 
 of his life, its shadows as well as 
 its light places, Fun laid bare, even 
 to the daily fight he was making 
 against the call of the poppy dreams. The 
 older man, as he listened and watched closely 
 the man he now knew to be the son his heart 
 had hungered for through the years, felt that 
 heart grow light as the story went on, as he saw 
 the firmness, the strength, the utter manliness in 
 the best sense the other possessed, and when at 
 last the tale was finished and no slightest veil 
 rested between the two, he gave a great sigh of 
 joy. Here was the soul-stuff he had hoped his 
 boy might possess; no lurking smallness, no mean 
 ness big, big in every way was this boy of his 
 in stature, in heart, in brain; a fitting comrade 
 during the time left to him to enjoy the comrade 
 ship, a fitting captain in whose hands to leave the 
 ship of his lifework when he must go. 
 
SUE CHUC 167 
 
 Again the two men grasped hands; it was no 
 ticeable how restrained they were in speech, in 
 manner, in the light of their new knowledge that 
 yet meant so much, so vitally much to them both. 
 Each felt the completest sense of the other's full 
 est understanding, sympathy, love; and, being 
 the men they were, and so alike, little in mere 
 words was needed. 
 
 The day after, during tiffin, Fun said, "I have 
 just had word that Madame Jay-San will arrive 
 to-night." 
 
 "Jay-San ! to-night!" exclaimed the other. "No 
 but I should say, rather, 'of course. 7 Jay-San 
 has never been far away at any crisis of my life 
 yet. She has a veritable instinct for time and 
 place." Then, with a twinkle of the dark eyes 
 still so bright behind their glasses 
 
 "How you will be 'bossed,' as we used to say 
 in England, my boy!" 
 
 Fun laughed. "And how I shall love it," he 
 said. "Why, father," he hesitated a trifle over the 
 new form of address, but went on as he saw the 
 quick response to it flash across the other's face. 
 "One of the things I have missed most in my 
 life has been that very thing. Oh, I admit it can 
 be carried to excess, but one can stand a good deal 
 of it when one has been as lonely as I have always 
 been. The feeling that some one cares for you, 
 
1 68 SUE CHUC 
 
 is interested in you, even in the smallest unimpor 
 tant things of your life yes, I can stand a good 
 deal of that." 
 
 "Fortunate, for you'll certainly get it," laughed 
 the other. "What time will Jay-San arrive?" 
 
 "The messenger said before night, but I doubt 
 it. The storm of two days ago has made the 
 road almost impassable for a cart." 
 
 "Yes, but not for a good horse and a woman 
 who knows how to ride," a laughing voice an 
 swered from the doorway. 
 
 Both men rose from their chairs and hastened 
 toward her. 
 
 "Here, Ah-Fing, unwind me, do; I'm wrapped 
 up like a cocoon, and Fun, get me a pair of slip 
 pers out of that bag. There" as at last she 
 emerged from her swaddlings, her handsome face 
 ruddy from the cold wind, her eyes sparkling like 
 a girl's. 
 
 "Now, you two," she said, pointing an accus 
 ing finger at them, "how long have you known?" 
 
 Fun gasped. Dr. Ah-Fing looked amused and 
 stirred. 
 
 "Well, not long, I see. However, I'll war 
 rant you neither of you thought once of telegraph 
 ing me the glad tidings no," as they exchanged 
 guilty glances. "I suppose you never gave it a 
 thought. Oh, you men! And there I might be, 
 
SUE CHUC 169 
 
 I suppose, for a month without having heard a 
 word if I had not stirred up these old wits of mine 
 and put several pairs of twos and twos together 
 and come dashing madly down here, as Docia 
 would say, on my own hook." 
 
 "But, Madame Jay" her eyes reproached him 
 "Aunt Jay-San," he amended, putting his arms 
 about her and looking into her upturned face, 
 "how did you know? We have known only since 
 last evening." 
 
 She looked from one to the other, mischief in 
 her eyes, but with her lips tremulous. "You blind, 
 blind bats," she said. "Why, I suspected it the 
 first time I saw you, Fun; and I was certain of it, 
 morally, that is, when I heard your story." 
 
 "And you said nothing," her brother re 
 proached. 
 
 "Naturally, being a woman with some sense 
 I waited to have proof. But tell me, how did you 
 hear it? Yes, I knew Choo-Dan was the God of 
 the Machine. I sensed that when I read Fun's 
 telegram to you, and the rest I got psychically." 
 
 The men roared. 
 
 "You think that a subject for merriment, evi 
 dently. Very well, you may laugh, we can afford 
 to let you. Now, am I to be fed?" 
 
 Fun hurried to order fresh supplies of tea and 
 toast, cutlet and compote, while Dr. Ah-Fing and 
 
i yo SUE CHUG 
 
 his sister seated themselves at the table. There 
 had been a long, long hand pressure between 
 them, a quick exchange of tender greeting, then 
 on Fun's return to the room all tension was re 
 laxed and they talked freely, fully, and without 
 emotion. 
 
 "How wtf-Chinese we all are in some things," 
 Madame Jay-San said, "and how utterly like in 
 others. Not at all a bad admixture, I find, in 
 despite of all the wise adages anent mixed blood." 
 
 They lingered long over the table, then Fun 
 tore himself away and went to the hospital. Dur 
 ing the remainder of the day he worked steadily 
 and it was with a heart as light as a boy's that he 
 turned homeward. His remarkably developed 
 ability for concentration enabled him for the mo 
 ment to lose himself completely in the thing he 
 was doing, and the day with its manifold duties, 
 its necessity for decisions, for ordered, systematic 
 supervision and direction, had not proved too try 
 ing, although his heart carried its joy and his sub 
 conscious mind wove dreams. 
 
 Madame Jay-San called to him from the bal 
 cony of his sitting room : 
 
 "A letter from the little sister." 
 
 "Go in, go in,' he answered, "this air is like 
 a knife," and he ran up the stairs and along the 
 hall, and, as Madame Jay-San opened the door to 
 
SUE CHUG 171 
 
 him, gave her a quick boyish hug that evidently 
 delighted her. 
 
 "Well, thanks be," she said, as she put up her 
 hand to her heavy hair instinctively, as women do, 
 "at long last I'm to be given some demonstration 
 of affection. I was so afraid you might think it 
 proper and fitting to be grown up and formal." 
 
 "Not I," laughed Fun; "I wanted to hug you 
 the first time I saw you, and, now I've the right, 
 you can be prepared for all the demonstration you 
 will stand. No one expects a man who has been 
 perishing of hunger and thirst to be temperate 
 when food is given him. 
 
 "Where is Doctor where is my father?" he 
 asked, looking about. 
 
 "He is writing in my sitting room, but will be 
 in presently." 
 
 "I'll just get you to make tea while I run 
 through Sue's letter, Aunt Jay." 
 
 Madame Jay watched him covertly as she bus 
 ied herself with the tea-making, saw his face 
 change and noted the growing excitement in his 
 manner as he turned the last page and came to the 
 bottom. He drew a long breath and sat back in 
 his chair as though his tension were relaxed. 
 
 "What a wonderful thing is life; what a won 
 derful thing!" then he looked up and caught her 
 eyes upon him. "When we've had our tea, I'll 
 
1 72 SUE CHUC 
 
 read this to you," tapping the pages of the letter. 
 Then he rearranged the sheets and placed it on 
 the tea-poy by his chair. As the Doctor entered 
 the room, Madame Jay-San's eyes dimmed as she 
 saw the expression on both faces. 
 
 During tea they talked of the work, of Dr. 
 Ray's return the following year, and Dr. Ah-Fing 
 said: 
 
 "Fun, Dr. Ray can get another to take your 
 place here, but I cannot get what I want up north 
 will you come up to me ? What I need is a sec 
 ond self one does not find that a something to 
 be obtained for dollars, as a rule? The work is 
 a big one, a necessary one. I cannot, in the na 
 ture of things, give all my time to it, and if you 
 will come to me you shall be its virtual head, I 
 only the one to turn to when you need my longer 
 and larger experience as help. Will you, my 
 boy?" 
 
 "Will I, father?" the tone was sufficient. 
 
 "And now, if you men will drop shop for a 
 while, I'll be glad. Fun, you promised to read 
 me Sue's letter." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 jUN took up the pages and began: 
 
 "New York. 
 
 "Oh, Fun dear, may I be common 
 place and indulge in some good old 
 platitudes? Yes? well, what a 
 wonderful thing life is, for one; 
 and is it not true, how the bolt from the clear sky 
 is the one that strikes, etc., etc., ad lib. ? I won't 
 inflict any more on you, although I love the dear 
 old homely things who needs or wants flights of 
 fancy at certain times? I, for one, need just 
 those old stupid weights-to-earth that they give 
 me. 
 
 "I believe I finished my last letter with a P. S. 
 telling you I had got the news of poor Eleanor's 
 accident and that on the next train I was going 
 out to see what could be done by me in the way 
 of help or comfort. I did go, and took a cab to 
 the big house, where I found that the mother's 
 dead body had been brought, but that Eleanor, 
 too injured to be sent home, was at the house be 
 fore which the accident occurred, that her father 
 
I 7 4 SUE CHUC 
 
 was with her, and several physicians, and that 
 the great Dr. Z. was expected by the next train; 
 so I jumped into the cab again, which I'd kept un 
 til I knew about things, and the servant gave the 
 driver the directions. 
 
 "We drove along past 'Cosy Corner' and 
 stopped where do you think? At old Tonkey- 
 Lo's! I caught sight of several people through 
 the glass of the window in the sitting room and I 
 stole around to the back door, hoping to get 
 speech with Tonkey-Lo or Bub. The latter I 
 found out in the woodshed, his head buried in 
 the old garden sack Tonkey-Lo wears when he 
 fusses about on cool days, and his shoulders shak 
 ing. Went up to him and called him, and he 
 turned and fairly threw himself into my arms and 
 sobbed so I was frightened 'most out of my wits, 
 for, although he is a sensitive little fellow, had 
 not thought him so nervously organized. And 
 just when I, at my wits' end, was going to call 
 for help, for I thought the child would have con 
 vulsions, out came Tonkey-Lo. 
 
 "Have been trying to formulate the impression 
 I got from the first sight of his face that day. 
 Ordinarily it is like most Chinese faces: rather 
 masklike, but then it was as though a light burned 
 behind one of the yellowish paper panels of a 
 lantern, and his eyes well, it seems absurd to say 
 
SUE CHUC 175 
 
 that the eyes of an ugly old Chinaman were beau 
 tiful, filled with a sort of satisfied, beatified look 
 and soft as a girl's, but they were all that. 
 
 "After he had quieted Bub, I asked him to tell 
 me about the accident, which he did, having seen 
 it all, but too far away to help, and he said that 
 Eleanor was not expected to live through the day. 
 I was crying almost as hard as Bub by this time, 
 and Tonkey-Lo patted me and said a lot of things 
 about being brave and ready, which he repeated 
 often. Thought it a part of the excitement under 
 which he was palpably laboring and submitted to 
 being made to drink a huge bowl of some awful 
 herb stuff, which I must admit braced me up, and 
 then out into the kitchen, where we then were, 
 came Eleanor's father. 
 
 "Never have I seen such a change in any one 
 in so short a time. Before when I met him he was 
 fat, complacent, a trifle coarse looking in a hand 
 some way, and his thick black hair was as black 
 as could be; that afternoon he was like a man 
 whose vitality has been utterly sapped his skin 
 was actually flabby, and under his eyes were huge 
 puffy bags and all through his hair were white 
 threads. I'll never again laugh at the expression, 
 'hair turning white in a night. 1 
 
 "Tonkey-Lo met him at the door and almost led 
 him to a chair, treating him as he would Bub or 
 
176 SUE CHUC 
 
 one of us, yet with a certain difference that I could 
 not explain but felt. 
 
 "I did not know what to do or say. For the 
 first time in my life I was tongue-tied; everything 
 usual seemed so banal, so utterly silly in the face 
 of this big tragic thing that had occurred, so I 
 cried a little more, which, it appears, was the best 
 thing I could have done, for it roused him from 
 his thoughts and for the moment took him out of 
 himself. 
 
 " Tes, yes, it's little Sue, my girl's friend,' he 
 said; 'you can cry, child, can't you? I wish I 
 could.' At that I made a perfect mop of myself, 
 for it did seem so terrific to see that great man 
 so simple and so hurt, that's the thought that came 
 to me, the feeling of his 'hurtness.' 
 
 "Presently, as though for relief, he told me of 
 the accident and at the finish he sat quiet for a 
 moment, then his face flushed until I thought he 
 would have an apoplectic fit and he brought his 
 fist down on the table like a sledge-hammer, say 
 ing: 
 
 " 'And this is to be the end of my toiling, my 
 planning, my hopes; no wife, no child, only the 
 money the damned, blackened, filthy money. I'll 
 not have it, I'll not, I'll not, 1 then he swayed and 
 Tonkey-Lo caught him. 
 
 "Maybe you don't think I was properly scared, 
 
SUE CHUC 177 
 
 but my training got the better of my fright, and 
 I rushed over and took off his collar, and while 
 Tonkey-Lo held him I massaged the back of his 
 neck until that awful color got better and he came 
 out of whatever it was he had gone into, and I 
 had his poor head on my shoulder when he opened 
 his eyes and looked straight into mine. Tonkey- 
 Lo had taken off his shoes and was rubbing his 
 feet. I thought he never would take his eyes off 
 mine, and I could no more have turned mine away 
 than I could have flown. 
 
 "At last Tonkey-Lo looked up and saw us, and 
 I was conscious that he was rising and leaning 
 near us; he said something in Chinese that I did 
 not understand, but that the sick man did, for 
 he gasped and sat up straight and I got my glance 
 back into my own keeping again, with the biggest 
 sense of relief. 
 
 "Just then one of the doctors came to the door, 
 looked at us all, and saw how things were and 
 took us all in hand; made the sick man lie down 
 on the long wooden bench that seems Tonkey-Lo's 
 special property, and with only a folded quilt 
 under him, and asked me if I was a nurse, evi 
 dently thinking me the one that had been sent for. 
 I said yes, and he ordered me to go in to the sick 
 girl, so I slipped into the frock I had brought and, 
 with my heart in my mouth, went in. I'm not go- 
 
1 78 SUE CHUC 
 
 ing to tell you of all that it's too fresh yet for 
 me to talk of. 
 
 u Dr. Z. came that night, stayed all night, de 
 cided upon an operation as the one and last, al 
 though most doubtful chance. At seven the next 
 morning it was performed, and well, poor Elea 
 nor never came out from under the anaesthetic. 
 Her father had pulled himself together and went 
 through the whole thing there simply was no 
 keeping him out of the room. And when we 
 knew the end had come I saw the bitterest smile 
 on his face poor old fellow, all his millions will 
 not be any comfort, for he idolized his daughter. 
 
 "Tonkey-Lo was a puzzle to me during the next 
 few days. He was up at the great house all the 
 time, only rushing back to see if Bub was all right, 
 and he would cook up all kinds of food for us, 
 for I stayed on, feeling for some reason that I 
 could not leave, although in reality my friendship 
 with Eleanor had been anything but an intimacy. 
 
 "The burial took place on the third day after 
 Eleanor's death, the double interment making it 
 seem so much more than just a double bereave 
 ment. I wonder why that is, Fun. I've noticed 
 it before. A number of Eleanor's old school 
 friends came, as did Miss Elliot and three others 
 of the teachers. 
 
 "After it was all over I crept home to Bub ; felt 
 
SUE CHUC 179 
 
 I needed to see all of the boys and get 'bucked 
 up,' as Casey calls it. It being Saturday, they 
 were all at home, and I was comforted and made 
 much of. We got supper, for Tonkey-Lo was 
 away yet, and sat around the fireplace talking 
 quietly when Tonkey-Lo came in. Bub flew to 
 him and hung on as though Tonkey-Lo had been 
 all but lost to him, and Tonkey-Lo patted his curls 
 and settled his tie, looked at his face, and was, 
 as always, dear to him. Was rather taciturn and 
 went out to the kitchen soon, where we heard him 
 stirring about. 
 
 "The boys had decided it was too cold and 
 stormy to let me go home, so they made me a bed 
 on the big sofa in the sitting room, and after I'd 
 had a piping hot bath in the woodshed that's 
 the bath room I snuggled down among the cov 
 ers and went fast asleep. 
 
 "In the morning slept until seven and found the 
 boys had made a roaring fire for me to dress by 
 and brought in a zinc tub of cold water for my 
 bath. Then when I'd dressed we all had break 
 fast, and things seemed more cheerful, only I 
 could not get out of my mind that poor man's 
 voice as he said 'Only the money.' Tonkey-Lo 
 did not leave the house that morning, was busy 
 straightening everything up, and I noticed he 
 kept going to the window often. Finally, after 
 
i8o SUE CHUC 
 
 everything was in spick and span order, he disap 
 peared into the woodshed and Bub said he was 
 taking his bath. In an hour he appeared again 
 and we all held our breaths, he was in his very best 
 new year's clothes, but brand new ones, from the 
 button on the top of his skull cap to the shoes on 
 his immaculate stockinged feet, and his dear old 
 kind face fairly shone with scrubbing. 
 
 " *I think I go to big house,' was all he said, 
 and out he went, but he had not got to the gate 
 when a brougham stopped, and I saw Eleanor's 
 father's face through the window. The groom 
 jumped down and opened the door and Tonkey- 
 Lo got in. All of us had been looking from our 
 front window and we just stayed stupidly watch 
 ing until the carriage drove away. Then Casey 
 whistled and the others all began talking at once. 
 
 " 'Say, fellers, what's it mean, anyhow? Think 
 the old chap is going to try to get Tonkey-Lo to 
 go and live with him?' 
 
 " 'Tonkey-Lo won't go away from us,' said 
 Bub. 
 
 "'No? What makes you think so? We don't 
 do much for him, can't, worse luck. I say, fel 
 lers, what in time would we do if he should go, 
 with Bub only quarter grown, and the farm and 
 all this?' Dismay followed, but Bub said: 
 
 " 'No, he won't go it's only he's gone to com- 
 
SUE CHUG 181 
 
 fort the poor rich old fellow.' I think L smiled, 
 but the boys were quite serious, as though the vis 
 its of a poor old Chinaman to a rich Occidental 
 were quite in the order of things. 
 
 " 'Yes, when they was' 'were' corrected Casey 
 severely 'were' amended Bub, 'young men they 
 both lived in China and Tonkey-Lo was the com- 
 perdor ' 
 
 ' 'Comprador,' I corrected. 
 
 " 'Yes, that's it.' 
 
 " 'What's that?' 
 
 "I explained how responsible a place it was 
 and all of the boys opened their eyes. 
 
 "'Whew!' whistled Casey. 'That's going 
 some ! Always did think old Tonkey-Lo was sort 
 of higher up than he seemed. How'd you know, 
 Bub.?' 
 
 " 'Tonkey-Lo told me.' 
 
 "'Umph!' Casey eyed Bub speculatively, and 
 Bub went on to tell us how one time, when there 
 was some big trouble, he did not know of what 
 kind, Eleanor's father saved Tonkey-Lo's 'face,' 
 and after that they were, as Bub put it, 'thicker'n 
 thieves,' for which rendering Casey frowned upon 
 him and amended it to 'great friends.' Oh, Fun, 
 how you would love these boys ! 
 
 "We talked all day, at intervals, over the situa 
 tion, and got no further toward a solution, and I 
 
1 82 SUE CHUC 
 
 had to leave on the four train, so, it being a good 
 cold, clear day, we walked to the village and the 
 boys saw me on the train, Casey buying my 
 ticket and refusing to be reimbursed. I caught 
 a glimpse of them all lined up along the platform 
 with their caps off as the train pulled out. 
 
 "Fun, I couldn't get that poor man out of my 
 mind what was he going to do ? As far as I could 
 see or hear, every one of his plans and hopes cen 
 tered about Eleanor. Goodness, but it's awful to 
 put all of the eggs of one's interest, affection, and 
 possibilities for joy into one basket; from now 
 on, Fun, I'm going to take warning and diversify 
 my interests, loves, and joys. 
 
 "Three days went by and no word from the 
 boys. Was going to the lectures as usual and 
 working overtime at home, when about six o'clock 
 on the third day there came a ring at the bell and 
 I flew to open the door, thinking it Phoebe Bren- 
 ning, whom we were expecting to supper, and 
 ushered in Mr. Morton, Eleanor's father, and 
 Tonkey-Lo. And now, dear, catch your breath, 
 you will need all of it. 
 
 "I cannot remember the beginning of things 
 because what followed was so wonderful; but it 
 seems that twenty-five years ago Mr. Morton was 
 in China in business, and while there met a lovely 
 half-caste girl whom he fell in love with and 
 
SUE CHUC 183 
 
 wanted to marry, but his friends persuaded him 
 not to, telling him that if he did his future was 
 ruined and all that. They made him so uncom 
 fortable that he decided to say nothing further to 
 them, but just quietly marry her anyway, which he 
 did during a trip to Shanghai, getting some mis 
 sionary, an old friend of his, to perform the cere 
 mony. To avoid talk, he left her to live with an 
 old sister and only visited her occasionally, think 
 ing after a year or two more to take her home 
 to America. Then a baby was born, then came 
 the Great Plague and the wife died, and, as he 
 supposed, the little one, too. He was told so after 
 his recovery, for he, too, had the plague and only 
 barely got through, the wife's sister nursing him 
 back to health. 
 
 4 'He was so broken in health and spirits that 
 he decided to leave China for good and all, im 
 mediately his business was wound up, which he 
 did. Now conies in the wonderful part, Fun, dear 
 the woman who nursed him, his wife's sister, 
 was Mai-den! The child which did not die 
 is I. This won't come as a shock to you, for you 
 remember when you wrote me to make my choice, 
 if I should or should not learn from you the facts 
 of my parentage, you knew most of it, possibly all. 
 
 "And Fun, dear Fun, it won't make any differ 
 ence in our plans, it just must not. What do I 
 
1 84 SUE CHUC 
 
 care for being Miss Morton? I'm Sue Chuc, and 
 Sue Chuc will I stay; that I have firmly made up 
 my mind to, but please, dear, do write me what to 
 say to this new father of mine. He wants me to 
 come and be the daughter of his house; he wants 
 to tell all the world of this old romance of his 
 and prove that it is my right to come to his house 
 as his daughter and its mistress. And Fun, oh, 
 dear Fun, I want only this, to be in China with 
 you, busy in the work we have planned. What do 
 I care about the money or position if to get it I 
 must give up our dream and you? No, I cannot 
 and I will not. I have told him so as plainly as I 
 could; showed him my heart, but he won't under 
 stand; he just refuses to, and Tonkey-Lo said 
 something to me yesterday that made my heart as 
 heavy as lead and as light as a bit of floss silk. 
 "Oh, Fun, what shall I say to Mr. Morton? 
 
 "Your 
 "SUE." 
 
A \ 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ADAME JAY-SAN and her broth 
 er had exchanged glances often, 
 as the long letter was read, and 
 both noted the quiver in Fun's 
 voice as he read the last of it. The 
 silence that ensued lasted an appre 
 ciable time, and was broken by Dr. Fing. 
 
 "The poor lonely man the poor lonely man." 
 Madame Jay-San said, her fine eyes soft: 
 u That blessed torn-to-bits girl, how she is suf 
 fering." 
 
 Fun looked from one to the other and was still. 
 "What do you think will be the outcome, Fun?" 
 asked Dr. Ah-Fing. 
 
 "I do not at all know. That she is quite sin 
 cere in not wanting it to make any difference in 
 our plans, I know, but in the very nature of things 
 it must; she is his legitimate child, he a man of 
 enormous wealth and a lonely man. I know her 
 tender heart, and I know how that loneliness will 
 make its certain appeal. The money won't count; 
 in fact, I think that were he a poor man she might 
 
1 86 SUE CHUC 
 
 the more readily go to him, sacrificing her own 
 desires to his." 
 
 Madame Jay nodded, "Yes, that is quite what 
 I thought of her. How I should love to have 
 had a daughter like her, or a niece," she added, 
 with a quick glance at Fun, who caught it and 
 flushed, hesitated a second, then said: 
 
 "Aunt Jay, if Sue would have had me, I had 
 decided to marry her. Now well, that damnable 
 money will make that a dream; I could not ask 
 her." 
 
 "And why not, pray?" and without waiting for 
 an answer Madame Jay-San continued, her eyes 
 very largely opened and bright, two spots of red 
 on her smooth cheeks. "Do you mean to tell me, 
 Fun, that you do not know the girl loves you 
 why it is patent in every line of her letters and 
 between the lines. The 'brother and sister 1 play 
 answered its purpose while it was needed, but 
 surely you have been laboring under no delusion 
 that it had not finished its work." 
 
 "On my own part, no; but I have not seen that 
 which you seem to think exists, Aunt Jay." 
 
 "Bless the boy!" Madame Jay was frankly im 
 patient at what she deemed the usual masculine 
 stupidity, and Dr. Ah-Fing bit his lip to hide the 
 smile that would come. 
 
 "Now, don't do that, Fing; it's far more ag- 
 
SUE CHUC 187 
 
 gravating than an open smile, you know," she said, 
 and her brother laughed outright. His sister's 
 quickness was a nevef-ending source of amusement 
 to him. 
 
 "Anyway," she continued, "what is there to 
 laugh at. You men are stupid and we women 
 know it even the cleverest of you men and the 
 silliest of us women and it strikes me that you 
 might use your brain a little on this problem of 
 Fun's." 
 
 The Doctor laughed again and Fun joined him; 
 then, seeing the shadow that crossed the kind face 
 of the woman, he rose and went over to his aunt 
 and, stooping over, kissed her lightly on the cheek, 
 and said: 
 
 "Aunt Jay, I for one admit my 'worm-of-the- 
 dust'-ness, and will be so glad to be given sugges 
 tions. I do want Sue I have, I think, for a 
 very long time, only I was obsessed by an old 
 dream and did not know the fact. Now what shall 
 I do to get her, to avoid the dollars and keep 
 friends with myself about robbing that poor man 
 of kerf 
 
 "The poor man has, of course, my sympathy, 
 but he lived very well through a great many years 
 without her. Yes, I know it was not his fault," 
 as she noted Fun's expression, "but it's a fact, 
 nevertheless, so I cannot be too sorry for him be- 
 
1 88 SUE CHUC 
 
 sides, he has so much else." 
 
 "Not now, you know, Aunt Jay." 
 
 "No, you're right, I was losing sight of that 
 point, but even conceding it, let him make conces 
 
 sions." 
 
 Fun smiled this time. 
 
 "As, for instance," suggested Dr. Ah-Fing. 
 
 "Let him enjoy the dear's society as much as 
 he can during the two years yet before her at 
 college, then, with a good grace, give her up to 
 Fun, being satisfied with, say, a yearly visit from 
 or to her. Or, if he is determined to be near 
 her, come and live in Shanghai; there are not 
 many more interesting places to be found, and 
 it's halfway to almost any place. He might have 
 a charming home out Jessfield way or the Bub 
 bling Well Road, or even beyond, if he wanted 
 much ground, and he could go in for collecting 
 lacquer and old embroideries during the time he 
 spent there, and Sue and the children could run 
 down from Peking often, and he up to us." 
 
 Here Dr. Ah-Fing and Fun went off into gales 
 of laughter and Madame Jay-San, after looking 
 at them in surprise a moment, joined them. When 
 she could speak, she said a note of self-derision 
 in her voice: 
 
 "YouVe a perfect right to laugh this time. I 
 must be getting old. I had in my mind already 
 
SUE CHUG 189 
 
 cradled and spanked, loved, and was in process 
 of bringing up at least five great-nieces and neph 
 ews; don't at all feel certain I had not decided 
 upon their dispositions and the color of their eyes. 
 Yes, I'm an old fool I'm going out for some 
 fresh air. You two superior beings can talk things 
 over and let me know what you have decided upon 
 my return." 
 
 "Oh, Aunt Jay, Doctor Conrad returns to-night, 
 you know," Fun called after her. 
 
 "Does he? Good! There's a man for you!" 
 
 Dr. Ah-Fing got up and walked back and forth 
 in the big room. "Jay-San's not altogether wrong, 
 Fun," he said; "that plan might work. At least 
 it's worth trying. Possibly rather than give us 
 Sue entirely or make her unhappy, the father 
 might consent to some such plan, with modifica 
 tions or additions. If he once lived out here any 
 length of time, the chances are he likes it and 
 would find it possible. At any rate, as Jay-San 
 says, Shanghai is about midway between most 
 places worth while." 
 
 Fun shook his head. "Father, you do not real 
 ize the hold on a man his interests and occupa 
 tions of half a lifetime have, and Mr. Morton is 
 still a comparatively young man, not over fifty, 
 I think, with a multiplicity of moneyed interests. 
 
1 9 o SUE CHUC 
 
 No, a man could not give up that kind of activity 
 at his age." 
 
 "What will you do, then?" asked Dr. Ah-Fing, 
 an anxious tone discernible in his voice. 
 
 "I will write to him and put the case, my case, 
 before him; ask him to let Sue, after, say, two 
 years of living as his daughter, with all that that 
 means, choose for herself. Of course she is le 
 gally entitled to, now, for that matter, but I 
 should want her to know her mind thoroughly and 
 have a point of comparison. If he will do that, 
 leave her to decide for herself absolutely, I in 
 return will promise to say nothing to her during 
 that time of my love for her and desire to marry 
 her, and I will make it clear, oh, very clear, to 
 him that I will not accept any dowry with Sue. 
 If she loves me more than the things his money 
 can buy for her, she will want to share my life, 
 no matter what it is." 
 
 Dr. Ah-Fing started to speak, thought better 
 of it, and continued his walking. 
 
 Fun continued: "I will write to Sue as I al 
 ways have, fully, freely about everything but my 
 love for her, during that time. I shall show her 
 that her place as my helper is ready, when she 
 elects to fill it, but shall not say that it is to be 
 filled except as we had planned, the big brother, 
 the small sister. I think, father, I will write the 
 
SUE CHUC 191 
 
 letter to Mr. Morton now it may catch the 
 Gaelic on the tenth." 
 
 "Fun, just a moment: some day, my boy, I 
 will tell you of the hour Choo-Dan and I spent 
 on the day you brought us together after those 
 years; yes, I want you to know, you have the 
 right to and I appreciate your delicacy in refrain 
 ing from questioning me." 
 
 The two men exchanged the long look that was 
 becoming habitual with them since the knowledge 
 of their relationship had come to them. There 
 had been almost no demonstration, few words, but 
 when their glances met there was a mutual ex 
 change of thankfulness and affection that was 
 growing in strength as the days passed, and as 
 they in the close life discovered how at one they 
 were in all questions. 
 
 Dr. Conrad stopped in down at the hospital 
 on his return, needing the use of the laboratary 
 for some work he had to do, and it was there 
 that Madame Jay-San found him when, after her 
 brisk walk, she stopped in to see one of the in 
 ternes in regard to a nurse she had asked them 
 to send her. 
 
 "Oh, Madame Jay-San, this is luck! Can't 
 shake hands until IVe washed up a bit; be back 
 in a minute," were the words of greeting Dr. Con- 
 
192 SUE CHUC 
 
 tad flung over his shoulder as he sped along the 
 corridor. And after she had had a talk with the 
 interne, seen the nurse, and made arrangements 
 for her going north the following day, she went 
 to Fun's office t where she found the big man in 
 front of the fire. 
 
 They were old friends, these two; had weath 
 ered some trying times together; had from the 
 first been congenial and found innumerable meet 
 ing points in convictions, tastes, and desires. 
 "Come and make my tea for me, dear Madame," 
 Marshall begged, "and tell me all about the 
 blessed discovery. I got your note, for which 
 many thanks, thoughtful one; but it told me little 
 but the mere facts and I rushed through my work 
 to get back, being anxious to see with my own 
 eyes those two fine men in their happiness." 
 
 Madame Jay-San made the tea and, as they 
 sat sipping it, recounted the particulars. At the 
 finish Marshall drew a long breath. 
 
 "Great! What an experience it must have been, 
 and I suppose, being who they are, they did not do 
 any of the things men of other nations would do. 
 Such, for instance, as falling on each other's necks 
 in the approved dramatic style and exclaiming the 
 usual things." 
 
 "No, they did not, but, Marshall, you should 
 see the way they look at each other." 
 
SUE CHUC 193 
 
 "Yes, I can imagine," the good Doctor's eyes 
 were suspiciously misty as he passed his cup to 
 be replenished. "And now let us hope the 'little 
 sister' will rise to the occasion," with a chuckle. 
 
 "She will," assented Madame Jay-San, with 
 entire conviction in her voice. "I foresee a very 
 happy age for old Aunt Jay-San." 
 
 The Doctor chuckled again. "I've not a doubt 
 you have it all clearly drawn up in your mind how 
 all of the small great-nieces and nephews are to be 
 brought up yes?" 
 
 Madame Jay echoed his laugh and told of the 
 afternoon's scene. 
 
 "Delicious! I must write it all to my Mehitable. 
 The dear little woman will never forgive me for 
 not having brought her along, she does so love a 
 romance, bless her tender heart." 
 
 Fun's difficult letter had been written, and was 
 nearly at its destination when a letter from Sue 
 came. 
 
 Dr. Ah-Fing and Madame Jay-San had stayed 
 on with him, waiting for the worst of the thaw 
 to be over so that they might go back by boat, 
 feeling disinclined for the long and wearying over 
 land voyage. 
 
 Dr. Conrad had gone home, and old Choo-Dan, 
 his heart lightened of its burden, found himself, 
 much to his amaze, getting well, found his inter- 
 
194 SUE CHUC 
 
 \ 
 
 ests in life being revivified from day to day, and 
 his body, under the skillful care of Fun, showed 
 marked signs of its past vigor. 
 
 The two friends were together daily, and found 
 the hours too short. There were those long years 
 to be made up, and they were constantly being sur 
 prised to find how they had kept pace in their pur 
 suits, interests, studies. Dr. Ah-Fing, with the 
 nobility of character native to him, had found it 
 possible to allay the other's remorse, to prove that, 
 in spite of the sorrow of what he had thought his 
 double loss, his life had not been an unhappy or 
 useless one. And both men, in their anxiety to 
 get to the full the joy of the present time, grew 
 younger in appearance and acquired a realization 
 of the fact that they were not as yet really old 
 men, and might hope to live many years. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ADAME JAY-SAN, her brother, 
 and Fun were gathered in her sit 
 ting room when the mail was de 
 livered, and as the letters were 
 sorted she noticed that Fun's con 
 tained a thick letter from Sue, 
 and Fun that one of the big square, pale-gray en 
 velopes with Theodocia Melvin's handwriting 
 upon it was among Madame Jay-San's. 
 
 Each noted the other's discovery and laughed. 
 ."I'll read you mine if you'll read me yours," 
 announced Madame Jay. 
 "Agreed." 
 
 "But we will read them first to ourselves," she 
 added hastily, thinking of Theodocia's ofttimes 
 plain speaking, and that, too, there might be some 
 parts it would be a betrayal of confidence to read 
 aloud. 
 
 "Just what I was thinking," teased Fun, mer 
 riment in the one-time somber eyes. "It's never 
 quite safe to read aloud any letter of Theodocia's 
 without a previous rearrangement of parts." 
 
196 SUE CHUC 
 
 Madame Jay finished first and sat covertly look 
 ing at her nephew as he read his letter, her heart 
 glad to note his happier expression, the clearness 
 of his eyes and skin, the look of force and decision 
 that his entire personality showed forth. Then 
 her glance strayed to her brother, and an amused 
 look came into her eyes as she saw that he, too, 
 was watching Fun, a wistful, brooding affection 
 in his face. "What a couple of old 'brooding 
 hens 1 we are over the boy," she thought, u and 
 how young and well Fing looks; he has lost that 
 stoop he had and this has given him a new grip 
 on everything." 
 
 Just then Fun came to the end of his letter and 
 said, looking up to see the two pairs of eyes upon 
 him with the look he was beginning to watch for, 
 certain of its coming, but always, after the lonely 
 years, wanting to be reassured of its presence. 
 "I'll read first, if you want, Aunt Jay. Your let 
 ter probably only repeats what Sue has written." 
 
 Madame Jay skillfully restrained a smile at his 
 entire absorption in his belief that Docia of course 
 had only written of her meeting with Sue, and 
 slipped the letter into her sleeve, glad so easily 
 to get out of the promise to read it. Docia had 
 written of several other things and with her usual 
 thoroughness of detail, and they were not related 
 to Sue. "Read away," she said, "one description 
 
SUE CHUC 197 
 
 of that meeting doubtless repeats the other, as 
 you suggest.'* 
 
 Fun began: 
 
 "Morton Towers, January 3Oth. 
 "FuN DEAREST: 
 
 "So many things have happened since I wrote 
 you three weeks ago. By the way, it's almost time 
 for me to get an answer to that, or will be in 
 another ten days. 
 
 "I truly do not know where to begin. You will 
 want to know each step, though, along the path 
 that led me to Morton Towers, so I'll go back to 
 the beginning. 
 
 "My father has been very kind, very consid 
 erate, and has left me to decide things for myself, 
 only stipulating, in the event of my keeping to my 
 refusal to give up my plans for China and our 
 work, that I come to him for the intervening years. 
 I am not to be forced to decide anything, just to 
 live at the Towers on the free days, where he 
 can see me and find the weight of his loneliness 
 more bearable I'm quoting him. The remainder 
 of the time I shall keep on in town as before at 
 my lectures and work. But he would not become 
 reconciled to our flat, Chum's and mine, and did 
 not rest until he had got us moved into another, 
 and as it's miles upon miles away from the College 
 and hospital, I must have a brougham. 
 
198 SUE CHUC 
 
 "I begged him to keep the discovery quiet be 
 cause I did dread any newspaper notoriety, and 
 oh, Fun dear, I just could not bear that those 
 cruel reporters should get hold of the story. They 
 would spoil our lovely dreams, yours and mine, 
 and make a horrid melodramatic thing of it. So, 
 after I had argued with tears in my eyes he can't 
 bear tears he gave in and it was decided that I 
 was to be invited to visit Morton Towers. He 
 dug up I beg pardon, that is some of the boys' 
 slang he discovered an old maid t forty-second 
 cousin, and arranged for her to come and live 
 at the Towers it's pathetic to see how she enjoys 
 it all rand I go to visit her, week-ends. 
 
 "The fact of the brougham we got over by my 
 casually remarking to the group I met at the door 
 the first time I used it, "There are worse things 
 than having rich friends." And, too, I have kept 
 very much to myself, so that none of the other 
 students know anything about me. All of the gor- 
 geousness father insisted upon giving me in the 
 way of clothes is only worn when I am at the 
 Towers, and they are very somberly gorgeous be 
 cause of the awful recent horror. 
 
 "The boys had to be let into the secret, but 
 they feel so greatly the honor of being told it all 
 that they will never breathe a word of it. Father 
 is so interested in them all, and I found it hard 
 
SUE CHUC 199 
 
 to keep him from spoiling things by giving too 
 profusely of everything to them, but succeeded 
 in convincing him it was not wise, that instead 
 he should settle a sum upon them to be given them 
 when they were quite grown, and they are not to 
 know anything of the fact until such time. The 
 working-out they are doing is too valuable for 
 them to be taken chances with. Now father is con 
 vinced of my right judgment, but it is hard for 
 him to refrain. He is a perfect prince, Fun, and 
 I am finding out daily how good a use he puts 
 his money to, and my point of view in regard to 
 the very rich is completely changed. Why, they 
 feel to a degree their responsibility, to a degree. 
 I'm ashamed to think how narrow I was in my 
 callow judgment. 
 
 "Chum was, I think, very much dismayed and 
 unhappy, for herself only, for she's all interest 
 and joy for me, but I quickly made her see that 
 nothing in our life was to be changed, and now she 
 is reconciled, or nearly. We do miss our little 
 flat, though the new place is an apartment and 
 ultra-magnificent, and we are supposed to be poor 
 relations of Mrs. Jordan, who lives with us and 
 don't laugh chaperones us. Father made me 
 see the necessity of it and she's really a dear and 
 does not bother us at all, and those awful things, 
 les convenances, are satisfied. 
 
200 SUE CHUC 
 
 "I had to tell the Settlement House people, but 
 they won't of course mention a word of it, under 
 standing the necessity for silence. 
 
 "Every one from now on will be watching me, 
 I know, to see how the knowledge of the changed 
 conditions will affect me, and I know that in their 
 secret hearts they one and all expect me to drop 
 my work, my plan of going out to China and all 
 my previous dreams and take what Mrs. Jordan 
 terms 'my proper position in Society/ Sue Chuc's 
 proper position in Society is it not deliriously 
 funny, that? I know there will not be any change 
 of plans and that Sue Chuc's proper place is help 
 ing her big brother in the work amongst the 
 people that belong to them both, as much as pos 
 sible. Do you know, Fun, I'm not nearly so glad 
 to know of my white blood as I thought I should 
 be why is that? I do wish you would occasion 
 ally answer some of my questions, by the way. 
 
 "There is Mrs. Jordan calling me, I'll finish 
 this later. 
 
 Four days later. 
 
 'Whom do you think I was called away 
 to see? Mrs. Melvin! Theodocia Melvin. I 
 went into the reception room where Mrs. Jordan 
 told me the lady was waiting who wanted to see 
 me, who was a friend of Mrs. Holding's, and I 
 saw a very tall woman standing at the window, 
 
SUE CHUC 201 
 
 and when she turned I knew her instantly and 
 evidently showed how delighted I was to see her, 
 for she laughed and pulled me to her and gave 
 me a real dear kiss. I heard it said once at Hold 
 ings' that Docia never kissed people, so you can 
 imagine how pleased I was. Then she made me 
 sit down on the sofa next her and asked me all 
 sorts of questions, not the kind that mean just 
 curiosity, you know, Fun, but the ones that show 
 deep interest there's such a difference. And did 
 you ever hear such a voice, Fun? It's like a big 
 organ at the cathedral when the stops are in, 
 and her eyes and her hair and her mouth oh, 
 I just sat and gloated over her and felt a poor 
 little gray mouse of a thing, but some way one 
 never could feel envious. She's just Theodocia 
 Melvin, and there is only one of her kind in the 
 world. 
 
 "After she had found out all about me, even 
 to the thoughts I had never even formulated, I 
 veritably believe, we talked of other things and 
 she told me that she had seen Casey and was 
 going out the following Sunday to see Tonkey-Lo 
 and Bub, and asked me if I would not have din 
 ner with them all at Tonkey-Lo's. Casey had sent 
 me the invitation through her, so I accepted it 
 with glee. Cannot imagine anything more inter 
 esting than to see her with the boys about her, 
 
202 SUE CHUC 
 
 and as it was only two days off I delayed finishing 
 this until I could tell you of it. 
 
 "Went from the Towers in time to arrive a 
 half hour before the dinner (one-thirty) and met 
 them all on the road a half-mile from the house 
 coming to meet me. I wish you could have seen 
 them; they had taken Theodocia to show her all 
 their haunts and were coming back laden with 
 spoils. The willows are budding and they had 
 their arms full of the branches. Mrs. Melvin 
 was dressed in a gray corduroy suit, rather short 
 skirt, sack coat, gray Fedora hat, dogskin gloves, 
 leggings and stout boots, and was a picture! The 
 breeze had blown little tendrils of that wonderful 
 spun-silver hair about her face, her color was as 
 fresh and rosy as a good healthy girFs, and her 
 eyes bright. 
 
 "I'm not being silly over her, am I, Fun? I'm 
 not hypnotized or anything of that sort? If I am, 
 there is consolation in the knowledge that every 
 one else is too, even down to old Tonkey-Lo. I 
 had heard that she was lame, wore an artificial 
 leg, and yet I never noticed any limp, that is, a 
 bad one, and she goes about very freely, from 
 what the boys say. 
 
 I got out and walked the half-mile back with 
 them and we were called to dinner amost imme 
 diately upon our arrival at Tonkey-Lo's. Casey 
 
SUE CHUC 203 
 
 seated me, and the rest sat down. All of the 
 spick-spandiest dishes were out, the hemstitched 
 cloth and napkins, and the knives and forks with 
 the carved handles. Tonkey-Lo had got up a 
 royal dinner and we ate and talked and Mrs. 
 Melvin asked questions and beamed. The boys 
 began with the best intentions to keep up com 
 pany manners, but after a while they all forgot 
 and were as natural as if only with me or by 
 themselves. That's another thing I have noticed 
 about Mrs. Melvin; every one just has to be sin 
 cere with her; one knows she would see through 
 any affectation and would laugh at one, which is 
 different from laughing with one. The first, I'd 
 much rather she did not do to me. 
 
 After dinner we sat around the fire, for it was 
 three o'clock by then, we had stayed so long at the 
 table and talked more. Mrs. Melvin told us 
 about that niece of hers, the one she discovered 
 six or seven years ago in the slums and took home 
 to educate and oh, Fun, but what a dear girl she 
 must be. She has gone on the stage just had to 
 she is so talented Mrs. Melvin says it would 
 have been a crime to have prevented her, and 
 everyone believes that she will be one of the 
 great actresses. 
 
 "The great London surgeon performed some 
 operation on the foot that had been injured and, 
 
204 SUE CHUC 
 
 with the aid of a scientifically made shoe, the un- 
 evenness in her gait is hardly noticeable. I'll tell 
 you all about her some day, it's too long for now, 
 but it is thrilling. 
 
 "The boys were so excited over the news and 
 it seems that Mrs. Melvin had promised them all 
 a trip to Europe when they had finished certain 
 school work, and now it is decided that they are 
 to have three months there a walking-trip 
 through Germany and up into Switzerland, and 
 are to see Faith-Hope play in one of the big pro 
 vincial cities of England before they come back 
 in the fall to America. 
 
 "Mrs. Melvin has given Faith-Hope a big in 
 come, found a suitable 'stage-mother' for her and 
 all that, and will help her to get on as fast as 
 possible, but says that as long as she has flown 
 in the face of family opinion and will be an actress, 
 she must win her laurels by her ability and prove 
 it at each step. The money is only so that she 
 will be free from all the annoyance, such as even 
 the most talented is troubled by, if she must think 
 first and always of the pounds, shillings, and pence 
 of life. 
 
 "Is she not wise? I mean Theodocia. She was 
 in India when the news reached her that Faith- 
 Hope had gone on the stage and had to go back 
 
SUE CHUC 205 
 
 home to see for herself as soon as possible that 
 the girl was doing it as she wanted her to do it. 
 
 "Oh, while I think of it, I must tell you how 
 she makes the boys earn their joys; for instance, 
 she has ordered from Casey a set of carved trays, 
 furnishing the designs herself. That will take 
 up every spare moment he can scrape up for at 
 least two years, but the price she is paying for 
 them will take him and one of the other boys 
 right from Havre to Genoa and back, pay every 
 thing for the two months; Mrs. Melvin is paying 
 their steamer trip, and the other will have to make 
 his share up to Casey by some service; and Duffy 
 is to go to the children's home Mrs. Melvin has 
 established, each month for one entire day the 
 post is called Amusement Bureau' see to the 
 library, to the games, hear what complaints there 
 are, if any, and report to headquarters; order 
 new books to replace the badly worn ones, new 
 games also, and settle disputes. She says that 
 the man she had hired to do that for the last 
 three years has gone to California for his lungs. 
 I suppose she's sent him, don't you? and that 
 she has no one to put in his place. And that's 
 the way it goes she keeps them up to the mark, 
 gives them self-respect, and yet helps them just 
 the same. 
 
 "Bub, it seems, is frightened to death of the 
 
2o6 SUE CHUC 
 
 ocean voyage and begged to stay behind with 
 Tonkey-Lo, and Theodocia would not let the 
 boys insist upon his going, says it's wrong to 
 constrain people it's unfair. 
 
 "At five the carriage came and I had to go, but, 
 although I confess I would rather have stayed 
 with them, I was glad afterward I went home. 
 Father was so glad to see me. He had hurried 
 back from some important business in Washing 
 ton just to be with me over Sunday. I wish I 
 did not have to go against him some day; he is 
 so kind and he misses Eleanor so much and 
 seems to find comfort in me, but, Fun dear, I 
 must, I truly must go out to China. Say yes. 
 
 "SUE." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 HEY all smiled as the letter came 
 to an end and as usual it was 
 Madame Jay who spoke first. 
 
 "Did it occur to either of you 
 that Sue had dropped into the 
 most matter-of-fact habit of saying 
 'father'? And this is only after so short a time. 
 No, Fun," as she caught the expression on his 
 face, "I'm not inferring from that anything ad 
 versely affecting your plans, but only that the dear 
 child is going to find it a more difficult thing than 
 she now thinks it to decide against Mr. Morton 
 when the time comes for a decision. She's been 
 a lonely little thing always with very palpably a 
 great and rich nature, and with no outlet for all 
 that affection; so if I mistake not we shall see a 
 struggle. If you had not already promised Mr. 
 Morton in that letter, Fun, to be silent for these 
 next two years, I for one should strongly urge 
 you to tell the girl of your love for her, now." 
 Fun moved restlessly in his chair. "Aunt, I 
 
208 SUE CHUC 
 
 did not before dare avow it, but my own impulse 
 was to do that very thing." 
 
 Madame Jay-San rose quickly. "Very well, do 
 it." 
 
 "But the letter must be almost there, by now." 
 
 His aunt gave him one of the affectionately 
 superior glances she often turned on her brother 
 and said: "Oh, you men of mighty brain! Very 
 well, the letter may be nearly there, but you can 
 forestall it for all that with a cablegram else 
 why are the cable companies paying dividends, 
 if not because of the human proclivity of writ 
 ing on the impulse and correcting the written mes 
 sage by a wire after the impulse has died!" 
 
 Fun rose with a bound, caught his aunt up and 
 hugged her, put her down again as though she 
 were something very fragile and precious, and 
 walked quickly out of the room. 
 
 Madame Jay-San's hands flew to her hair, pat 
 ted the soft heaviness of it into place, smiled at 
 her brother, who was laughing heartily, and pro 
 ceeded to reread Theodocia Melvin's letter, re 
 marking before beginning it: 
 
 "Fing, I am glad you and I and Fun have 
 not to be too controlled when in the family cir 
 cle, and that we have not to be we can thank 
 our foreign blood. Fancy a dignified and stately 
 
SUE CHUC 209 
 
 Chinese gentleman doing what Fun just did 
 the very heavens would fall at the sight." 
 
 An hour after, Fun returned. 
 
 "Well?" inquired the aunt. 
 
 "It's off; I saw the messenger started." 
 
 "Good what did you say?" 
 
 Fun handed her a copy of the cable, at the 
 length of which his aunt elevated her brows, and, 
 after reading it, passed it to her brother. 
 
 "It's very good, Fun; I can see, however, that 
 if there were many to be sent, those dividends 
 your aunt referred to would increase. 
 
 "And now, my son, as you have made your 
 decision, I am going to tell you something you 
 do not know, so that when you write your next 
 letter to Mr. Morton you can word it differ 
 ently. I am a very wealthy man, and you as my 
 heir will, of course, inherit the money. 
 
 "You did not think that, no? Why should 
 you, for you have only had the simple way your 
 aunt and I live to judge by. I had intended when 
 I thought myself without an heir to leave it all 
 to further the work, but you will be able to do 
 that with a part of it and will, I feel certain, do 
 so. The remainder you must use to bring up 
 all of those great-nieces and nephews in the way 
 they should go, that your aunt feels so sure will 
 eventually arrive upon the scene." 
 
210 SUE CHUC 
 
 "Now, boy dear/' interrupted Madame Jay- 
 San, "sit down and write to our Sue and to Mr. 
 Morton. I'll take your father into my sitting 
 room. I want to discuss some details with him, 
 and in a couple of days more we must go north 
 ward. The water is rising in the Tung-Sting and 
 the boats running again, and the ice will be gone 
 up north by the time we get there." 
 
 Six weeks had gone by. Sue had written twice, 
 but there had not been time for the answer to 
 his letter to arrive, when one day, as Fun stopped 
 in at the hospital toward evening, on the way 
 home, he found a stranger in his private office, 
 who rose to greet him at the opening of the door. 
 
 "Doctor Ah-Fun?" he inquired. 
 
 "Yes, what can I do for you?" Fun's manner 
 showed nothing of the surprise he felt. It was 
 an unusual thing to see a foreigner in that place, 
 but occasionally some missionary stopped en route 
 to or from the North. 
 
 "I am Mr. Morton," the other answered, "and" 
 looking at him keenly "after we have had 
 some conversation I can better answer that casual 
 question of yours." 
 
 Fun's immensely tall figure straightened to its 
 uttermost and the color flushed his face. The 
 other man watching him thought, "What a per- 
 
SUE CHUC 211 
 
 feet god of a man he is !" and sighed. This was 
 no weakling to be overawed or talked out of a 
 heart's desire. 
 
 After the first shock of surprise was over, Fun 
 seated his guest and himself took his usual place 
 before his desk, and the older man recognized 
 with a wry smih how like his own tactics that 
 placing of the stranger or the one to be inter 
 viewed in the light, while he, the interviewer, sat 
 in shadow. Fun remarked the smile, and sensed 
 the meaning of it, and, with the charm of manner 
 so entirely natural to him, said: 
 
 "Pardon me, Mr. Morton, that was mere force 
 of habit. As a physician I have to do that, but 
 between us there is no need," and he turned his 
 face into the full light from the window. u You 
 have a perfect right to see me clearly while we 
 are talking." 
 
 Mr. Morton looked at him curiously, won in 
 spite of himself by the sincerity of the man's na 
 ture so apparent, and his feeling underwent a 
 change which was evident to himself in his open 
 ing sentence. 
 
 Long the two talked, the afternoon lengthened 
 into twilight and that into night, and long after 
 the lamps had been lighted they talked. Finally 
 they both rose and the older man said : 
 
 "You've convinced me, and against every one 
 
212 SUE CHUC 
 
 of my convictions. It's a blow, I must admit, and 
 I see all my castles tumbling about my feet." 
 
 Fun's face was grave, almost solemn, and its 
 voice, with its fine, ringing quality, infinitely gen 
 tle as he said: 
 
 "I realize that, Mr. Morton, and all I can say 
 is that I will cherish Sue as my dearer self if she 
 answers me that she will come to me." 
 
 "She'll come. I know now what a fool I was 
 to think I had the ghost of a chance against you," 
 and there was reluctant admiration in his eyes 
 for the man who had fought and gained his fight 
 against such odds. For Fun had kept back not 
 one sullied day of his life's history, but had opened 
 the book of his life for the other to read. 
 
 "I know when I am beaten. And now, will 
 you ask me home for the night and the two days 
 until my boat leaves ? There is, I find, no foreign 
 hotel in this city. I won't be a nuisance," he 
 added hastily, "and I won't do the martyr act 
 that's not my way. But I should like to see more 
 of you and have a chance to talk with you of many 
 things." 
 
 "Indeed I will, Mr. Morton, and with very 
 deep pleasure. You will not interfere in any way 
 with my work. I have several very clever assist 
 ants and for the moment no serious operation 
 
 is on." 
 
SUE CHUG 213 
 
 True to his word, Mr. Morton assumed no 
 martyred air, but accepted the result with at least 
 outward composure, and the two days that the 
 men spent in each other's society, in talks, walks 
 about the big city, almost hourly companionship, 
 were mutually pleasant, and the handclasp they 
 exchanged at separating was cordial as was the 
 expression of their eyes friendly. And as the boat 
 got under way, the father stood by the railing 
 watching the receding shore and the tall figure of 
 the younger man with a curiously mixed feeling 
 in which mingled resentment at the trick Fate had 
 played him, in only giving him the small daugh 
 ter to again snatch her away from him, admiration 
 for Fun's person and qualities that had almost a 
 note of pride of posession in it, a growing lik 
 ing and a sorrow that so great a distance must 
 separate him from the fine manly figure. "Well, 
 well," he said, with a sigh as he finally turned 
 away to his cabin, a mist that was not wholly be 
 cause of the distance dimming his vision, "it's a 
 damn topsy-turvy old world, any way you look 
 at it." 
 
 Sue's letter came when Fun had almost begun 
 to despair, and assured and reassured him as to 
 her love for him; her entire gladness to be the 
 "little wife" instead of little sister; of her joy in 
 knowing that the new father and aunt wanted her 
 
214 SUE CHUC 
 
 and were prepared to welcome her with love, and 
 only at the very last of the letter did the little 
 wail go up of "Oh, Fun, dearest, dearest, these 
 two years longer are going to be so century-long, 
 and what, oh what am I to say to poor father? 
 I shall seem so lacking in consideration after 
 all of his kindness and the proofs of his affection 
 for me. But my dear, my dear, you have been 
 my whole life for so many years, and he, the 
 dear man that he is, has been for so short a time 
 anything to me. I could not give you up. Fun 
 dear, after that nice doctor woman returns to 
 China will you come on to see me before you join 
 your father in Peking? But I know you will." 
 
 The letter was too sacred to Fun to be shown, 
 so he only sent excerpts from it to his father and 
 aunt, with an account of Mr. Morton's visit 
 and with added zest turned to his work. 
 
 The spring had ripened into summer, the sum 
 mer into fall and the anniversary of his arrival 
 was nearly at hand. He tried to put away from 
 him, when it came, the inclination to dwell on the 
 thought of the intervening months between the 
 present and Dr. Ellen's return, and drove him 
 self as though his mind were the engineer and his 
 body the engine, so that by Christmas he was posi 
 tively lean. 
 
 Kue-Bow had slipped away from the North 
 
SUE CHUG 215 
 
 during one of Madame Jay's absences in the in 
 terior, and came back home. Her look of glad 
 ness when she came to the hospital and met Fun 
 was a revelation and his heart sank at the sight, 
 but he greeted her kindly and forced himself to 
 a something of aloofness foreign to him, and 
 quickly got away. 
 
 That night, after his lonely dinner, which 
 seemed, for some reason, unaccountably dreary, 
 after trying without success to settle to his usually 
 absorbing work and finding it impossible, with his 
 nerves taut as fiddle strings, his temples throbbing, 
 and his pulses accelerated, he paced up and down 
 his veranda, up and down through the seemingly 
 endless night. At intervals the small devil that 
 he had thought buried suggested to him that he 
 was a fool he was not a man that all men were 
 creatures of the flesh, not spiritual beings, that 
 a man had no more right to stifle the cries of the 
 flesh than he had to kill any other impulse, and 
 over and over the same old line of reasoning his 
 weary brain toiled, and the first flush of the break 
 ing day lighted up his pallid, drawn, and almost 
 harshly marked face, giving him the look of a 
 man whose force was almost all spent. 
 
 He stood holding on to the railing and looking 
 down over the huddled roofs of the city, out be 
 yond the great plain, as the sun rose in one su- 
 
216 SUE CHUC 
 
 preme burst of glory, bathing every object in its 
 health-giving, cleansing rays. 
 
 The fight was won, his heart was once again 
 at peace, and he sank down before his desk, and 
 on the impulse wrote to Sue, telling her honestly, 
 openly, without anything of false shame or of the 
 mock modesty that is most often pruriency, of his 
 soul's fight against his flesh's cry, and asked her 
 to promise him to marry him when he should 
 come on at the end of the time set. As lover to 
 lover, as husband to wife, as physician to physi 
 cian, he wrote, and did not realize how strong a 
 cry for help it was, the cry of the strong man who 
 yet is conscious of his weakness, of the courageous 
 man who yet knows his vulnerable spot, of the 
 man of fine, clean soul who desires above all things 
 to keep friends with his true self, that self that 
 we each have that, in the stress and strain of living, 
 gets at times pushed back and covered over deep 
 with the things of the day. 
 
 Sue Chuc took a day to think over the extraor 
 dinary letter she had received from Fun, during 
 which time the young man's magnificent truthful 
 ness, inherent nobility, and trust in her equal pow 
 ers of understanding made their appeal to her, 
 filled her heart with thanksgiving, with a glow 
 of pride in him, and with added love. Then, 
 after an almost sleepless night, she dressed and 
 
SUE CHUC 217 
 
 went out to send a cablegram in answer to the 
 letter's cry for help. It was very brief, prob 
 ably none that the wires had ever carried had more 
 of the essence of living in it, and the words were 
 only: 
 
 "With all my heart, at any time. SUE." 
 
 Then she went home and broke the news to her 
 chum, Stella. "I'm not going to finish my course, 
 Stella," and, as the other looked up, startled, from 
 her absorption in a medical book which had been 
 ripped from its binding and separated into por 
 tions easy of handling and capable of being car 
 ried and studied on trains and cars, or propped up 
 against sugar basins or marmalade pots at meals, 
 she added, "I am going to marry Ah-day-Fun 
 when he comes on in the spring." 
 
 Stella's round eyes opened to their fullest ex 
 tent and her lower lid drooped. 
 
 "Don't look so astounded and woe-begone, 
 Stella, what does it mean to me, that silly diploma, 
 anyway? I'm going to help my Fun just the 
 same if not in the same way, and that dear old 
 Dr. Ah-Fing and that lovely old Aunt Jay-San 
 are going to be happier than they have ever been. 
 By the way," she added, glancing at the dismem 
 bered medical book, "you will certainly ruin your 
 eyes and incidentally your digestion if you study 
 during meals all the time and read on the cars." 
 
218 SUE CHUC 
 
 Then, with a complete change of tone, she said, 
 "Stella, what shall I tell my father?" 
 
 "Yes what shall you?" answered the other. 
 
 "I don't know anything better than the truth, 
 but that won't make it easier for him. I wonder 
 when he will return, and where he's been Eu 
 rope, I suppose; have not had a word from him 
 in six weeks." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 HAT week-end Sue went to the 
 Towers and on Sunday walked 
 over to see the boys, whom she 
 found busy over atlases and Baede 
 kers. Already they were mapping 
 out their prospective trips of the 
 next summer and studying everything they could 
 get hold of in reference to the arts, crafts, and 
 horticulture of the countries they were to visit. 
 
 "We're going to see all of the botanical gardens 
 and Mrs. Theodocia says she will get us letters to 
 all of the places where there are experimental sta 
 tions or big gardens and nurseries," announced 
 Duffy, lifting his near-sighted, bespectacled eyes 
 from the pages of a huge tome on horticulture. 
 
 "And say, Sue, won't it be nuts to see all the 
 galleries of statuary and all the carvings wish 
 they'd let a fellow get up close to things, but they 
 keep 'em railed off if they're worth much, and 
 you're not allowed to so much as put a finger on 
 
 'em." 
 
 'Say, Sue," the budding architect said, "did you 
 
220 SUE CHUC 
 
 know there's to be a big competitive exhibition of 
 architectural sketches and plans in Dusseldorf, 
 just the time we'll be there? Gee! won't it be 
 bully, but," with a sigh, "how I wish we could cut 
 over to Greece. I'd give anything to see Athens 
 not the modern," he added in a tone of disgust, 
 "if you want to get a real jolt just look at these," 
 and he pushed disdainfully toward her a heap of 
 photographs of that city of to-day, and as she 
 took them up to look over he said mournfully: 
 
 "Just think of electric trains and big hotels 
 and shops with the latest novelties in a place with 
 the history of Athens it's enough to make you 
 
 want to swear." 
 
 "Well, you got to keep on moving," said Ca 
 sey, "else you're a deader sure, and you can bet 
 your last quarter that when old Athens was sport 
 ing all the things you're so looney over, she was 
 just as up-to-date in 'em as we are in our way 
 to-day." 
 
 A grunt was the only answer he obtained from 
 the embryonic architect with classical ideals. 
 
 Tonkey-Lo beckoned to Sue to come to the 
 kitchen, and, making an excuse that she wanted 
 to consult him on the ingredients of a sauce, Sue 
 shortly left the sitting room and went out into 
 the kitchen. Tonkey-Lo carefully closed the door, 
 and, motioning her to the farthest window, pulled 
 
SUE CHUC 221 
 
 out a chair for her, and when she was seated 
 stood before her and said: 
 
 "Where're your father?" 
 
 "I don't know, Tonkey-Lo; he only left me 
 word that he was going away on important busi 
 ness and would not be home for eight or ten 
 weeks, but I think he must have gone to Europe. 
 But it's queer he has not written." 
 
 Tonkey-Lo extracted from the mysterious depths 
 of his coat a yellow paper, opened it, and held it 
 out to her. 
 
 She took it and read the sentence written on it 
 in Chinese text and colored up into the very roots 
 of her hair. "Oh, Tonkey-Lo, he's in China." 
 
 Tonkey-Lo nodded, his kind old eyes wrinkling 
 at the corners. 
 
 "Yep, he go see that big man Doctor Fun; like 
 him velly good ; tlink him velly good husband for 
 liT girl Sue-Chuc; go get him mallied with her 
 plitty soon, an' some day we all, Bub an' me, too, 
 we gotsche go live China, long him an' you." 
 
 This was a long speech, and Sue sat listening 
 with her eyes filled with tears of pleasure. Then 
 it was all right; her father had seen Fun and had 
 liked him ; she could be happy without having that 
 happiness marred by the thought of a lonely man 
 in a huge empty house many thousands of miles 
 away. 
 
222 SUE CHUC 
 
 Then the absurdity of Tonkey-Lo's supposition 
 that her busy father would give up his life, with 
 its manifold interests, and go to live in China 
 struck her, and the joy died out of her face. Ton- 
 key-Lo, watching her, saw the change. 
 
 "Wat's er matter tlink he no go too busy 
 Amelican man?" 
 
 Sue nodded. 
 
 "Oh, that's all light. You see, he like China 
 plenty can be just same busy there, and new kinds 
 of business plenty will like um." 
 
 "Oh, Tonkey-Lo t do you really think so?" 
 Since she was known to be the daughter of his old 
 master, Tonkey-Lo had almost never addressed 
 her in Chinese, as had been his wont up to that 
 time, but always in his best pidgin English, nor 
 would he allow her to speak to him in Chinese, 
 much to her amusement. And now she said, mis 
 chief in her eyes again: 
 
 "I suppose when we get to China I shall be al 
 lowed to speak Chinese, Tonkey-Lo, and you will 
 drop your English?" 
 
 Tonkey-Lo's face was quite impassive as he an 
 swered, "Mebbe, mebbe." 
 
 "I'm awfully obliged to you, Tonkey-Lo, for 
 showing me the dispatch. What is it, a copy 
 done into Chinese? How did you get it?" 
 
 But Tonkey-Lo had gone about his work, so 
 
SUE CHUC 223 
 
 Sue went back to the boys and later on told them 
 her news. It was received in dead silence, and 
 she looked the surprise she felt. 
 
 "Oh, say, Sue; sure did you think we were so 
 silly we didn't know all along?" 
 
 "Know all along?" she repeated. 
 
 "Yes, cert we knew just from the first you and 
 the big Doctor was just up to your eyebrows in 
 love with each other." 
 
 "Well, I must say!" But what she must say 
 was never said, for the ridiculousness of the thing 
 overcame her. Here was she, only recently aware 
 of the nature of her feelings toward the "big 
 brother" and here were these sharp-eyed, sharp- 
 sensed young boys with a conviction of it "almost 
 from the first." 
 
 Casey added gravely: "We're awfully glad, 
 Sue. He's a good sort, all right t and so are you." 
 
 Sue sat back in her chair and laughed until Ton- 
 key-Lo poked his head into the doorway to see 
 what was the matter and called them to tea. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 RS. MELVIN was told, and Mary 
 Tobin and a few of the others; 
 and after Mr. Morton had re 
 turned and he and Sue had talked 
 it out, Sue went back to her lec 
 tures and study with renewed vim, 
 meaning to get in as much practical work as pos 
 sible before she should leave. And the months 
 passed. 
 
 She did not see Dr. Ray, as the Doctor returned 
 to China by another route. The boys left for 
 Europe and Sue and her father, Tonkey-Lo and 
 Bub went to see them off. And at last came the 
 day when, as Sue rose in the morning, her heart 
 sang, "To-day, to-day," and through the hours 
 she counted the minutes. 
 
 She had changed her mind a dozen times about 
 whether or not she should go to meet the train 
 and at last decided not to, and sent word to her 
 father to that effect. 
 
 She had tried on several dresses, finding each 
 one not the one, and at last settled upon a simple 
 
SUE CHUC 22$ 
 
 dark blue with a fluff of creamy chiffon at the 
 throat, her only ornament a huge, many-faceted 
 sapphire, pendant from a fine chain at her throat. 
 
 "Oh, I wish I were pretty," she moaned, as she 
 looked at herself in the glass. "You ugly little 
 mite of a thing," she apostrophized her reflection, 
 "how did you ever come to make any impression 
 on that splendid man?" Then she laughed, she 
 had remembered what a girl had once said to her: 
 
 "There is one consolation for the ugly woman : 
 when she captures the heart of a man, she's apt 
 to keep it, for she's not apt to change, whereas 
 the pretty woman always goes off in her looks, and 
 it's dreadfully noticeable." 
 
 She walked restlessly up and down her sitting 
 room listening to every sound. Finally, with a 
 glance at the clock on her desk, she went to the 
 window and stepped through its opened doors to 
 the balcony and looked down to the street. 
 
 A brougham had drawn up to the curb, and 
 under the "glare of the great arc lamp in front 
 of the apartment house she saw her father's figure 
 and his face as he lifted it toward her balcony. 
 Her heart seemed to stop beating, and her hands 
 grew cold for a second, thinking him alone, then 
 she saw a second figure and from its height and 
 carriage knew it for Fun's. His face was toward 
 
226 SUE CHUC 
 
 the entrance and she could not see it, but she no 
 ticed that he was dressed in English clothes. 
 
 At the door of their private hall she met him 
 and he caught up the small, slight figure and held 
 her close to him, whispering: 
 
 "My little Sue, my little Sue." 
 
 Quietly they were married in the little study at 
 the Settlement House. There had been no news 
 paper talk, owing to the care that had been taken 
 at the time of her decision to go on with her work 
 and study instead of going to the Towers as its 
 mistress, and the few friends had kept the secret 
 well. 
 
 The study had been banked with flowers, and 
 the lights under their shades shone softly upon 
 the little group assembled. 
 
 Dr. Dean had read the simple and beautiful 
 service, her father had placed her hand in the 
 hand of the man whose life was to be her life, the 
 benediction had been spoken, and then Sue had 
 turned her radiant face to them all and received 
 their congratulations. 
 
 Later they sat down to supper in the Dean's 
 pretty dining-room and at ten o'clock Sue said 
 good-bye to them all and they two went to the 
 dock where lay the big steamer that was to bear 
 them to Europe, where, after a few months of 
 
SUE CHUC 227 
 
 travel, they would again embark, this time for 
 China. 
 
 Old Tonkey-Lo had gone down to the steamer 
 and was awaiting them. 
 
 "Don't you wolly," he said to Sue earnestly. 
 "You see, I tell you ploper; one year, mebbe KT 
 more, mebbe liT less Mr. Morton, liT Bub, an' 
 ole Tonkey-Lo come out to see you." And Bub, 
 big-eyed and impressed, kissed her shyly and said, 
 nodding his curly head gravely : 
 
 "Yes, we will, sure. Tonkey-Lo says I won't 
 be scared at the water when he's along, and I guess 
 I won't. Anyway, I'm coming, too." 
 
 Sue hugged him. 
 
 Shyly he looked up at the tall man and held out 
 his slender brown hand, saying in his charming 
 way: "We're awfully glad you got her, Doctor 
 Fun, and when you and Sue see our boys over in 
 Europe they will tell you so, too. Good-by." 
 
 Mr. Morton at the last minute appeared, and, 
 after kissing his daughter tenderly and shaking 
 hands cordially with Fun, left again almost with 
 out a word, evidently too much moved for speech. 
 
 But next day, after the vessel's sailing, the 
 steward brought Sue a box of flowers with a little 
 note amid the blossoms, and when they arrived in 
 London the bank sent her word that the sum of 
 twenty thousand pounds was there to her credit. 
 
228 SUE CHUC 
 
 The months had gone by. Sue was weary of 
 travel and wanted to get to her new home. It had 
 been a beautiful time for them, and day by day 
 they realized the depth of their love and their 
 happiness. They had seen the boys in Geneva, 
 had two days with them, and Fun and they im 
 mediately struck up a friendship. He told them 
 that when they next took a vacation they must 
 come to them in China, there was much to be 
 learned there in the subjects they were taking up. 
 
 "If I'm not greatly mistaken, that wonderful 
 old country is going to be the seat of the greatest 
 changes that the next quarter of a century will 
 see. You know the old proverb of the slow-mov 
 ing of great bodies, and how they gather mo 
 mentum in moving until they overwhelm all ob 
 jects in their path. That is going to be the case 
 when China moves, so there will be big oppor 
 tunities for intelligent, active men." 
 
 And the boys promised. 
 
 "It will be in the Fall, four years from now, 
 that we will come, won't we, fellows?" 
 
 "Good! I shall keep you to your promise," 
 and with many good-bys and much waving of edel 
 weiss-decorated caps they parted. 
 
 On the steamer going out, Sue and Fun had 
 much merriment over their plans. They would 
 have been married six months by the time they 
 
SUE CHUC 229 
 
 reached China, and now it seemed to them that 
 they had always been married not that the hap 
 piness lessened, but that as the time went they 
 grew into a complete knowledge of the very re 
 markable similarity of their tastes, so that the 
 united feeling became the strongest one they pos 
 sessed. 
 
 At Woo-Sung, before they left the steamer for 
 the private launch that had been sent to meet 
 them and carry them to Shanghai, they had 
 changed from the Occidental dress to the Chi 
 nese, and Sue, with her hair dressed in native 
 fashion and her coat and trousers of finest and 
 richest satin, with delicate embroidery on bands 
 at neck and sleeves, her feet in beautifully made 
 shoes, looked, as Fun thought, the dearest wee 
 bit of femininity he had ever seen, and, as he 
 helped her down the steep stairs from the ship's 
 deck to the deck of the bobbing, dancing little 
 launch, his heart was very tender, very thankful, 
 and he looked forward with eagerness to present 
 ing the little wife to his father and Aunt Jay. 
 
 At the dock were waiting Dr. Ah-Fing and his 
 sister, and in the dusk of the late autumn day the 
 rather demonstrative welcome given and returned 
 was not noticed. Only Madame Jay's sharp eyes 
 had not failed to note that before many months 
 her arms would be filled, and it was with a kiss 
 
230 SUE CHUC 
 
 that carried much of gladness, thankfulness, and 
 affection for little Sue that she welcomed her, and 
 Sue, who had always wanted just what she felt the 
 other was ready and wanting to give, returned it 
 in full. 
 
 The lights were shining from the windows of 
 the club, the big Hongs, and along the street as 
 the carriage turned from the broad street and, 
 rapidly traversing the busy and crowded Road, 
 took its way out into the country.