Eastern Shame Girl Part 6

"We shall never be able to obtain quite that. Ten bowls of rice at each meal would not be enough."

Next day, when her parents came to see her, Elegant complained.

"I do not know what is the matter with me," she said. "I am dying of hunger."

But her mother began to laugh:

"That is not a very serious affair. I will have more rice brought to you."

But when the young girl said that she needed about ten bowls, the good woman was startled. She again wished to remain near her daughter.

"If you stay here, mama, I shall not be able to take anything. Leave me alone, and I shall eat more comfortably."

Everybody indulged her caprice. When the cabin was empty, she shut the door and Ya-nei came out. Hungry as he was, he made the ten bowls vanish like a shooting star, and did not leave a single grain. Elegant watched him with astonishment, and asked him in a low voice:

"Is that still too little?"

"It will suffice," answered the other, drinking a cup of tea.

He hastened back to his hiding-place, while the young girl ate some vegetables. Then she called the slaves, who came running up, wondering whether she had been able to eat all that food. They looked at the empty bowls and at their mistress's slim figure, and murmured as they went away:

"What a terrible illness!"

One of them, in her anxiety, went to the father and showed him the dish, suggesting that he should call a doctor as soon as possible.

And he, for his part, forbade them to give her so much another time, fearing that she would burst.

At mid-day he went himself to speak to her.

She began to weep: her mother took her part; and they gave way to her.

The evening meal was just as large.

They were approaching Ch'i-Chow, and Ho Chang, who was really alarmed, ordered his boatmen to cast anchor near the town. Early in the morning he sent his steward to find the best doctor, and when the man arrived, brought him on board and explained the case to him. They then went to examine the invalid and to try her pulse. The doctor at length came back with the father into the central cabin.

"Well? What is the illness?"

The other coughed, and at last said:

"Your daughter is suffering from lack of nourishment."

Her father was staggered:

"But I have told you that she ate thirty bowls of rice yesterday."

"Yet, but your daughter is still a child. She is apparently fifteen years old, but that is equivalent to fourteen in reality, or even to thirteen and some months. Her food acc.u.mulates in her stomach, but is not a.s.similated. From this cause arises the fever which burns her stomach and makes her imagine herself to be always hungry. The more she eats, therefore, the more her stomach burns. In one month it will be too late to cure her, and she will die of hunger."

"But how is she to be cured?"

"First, I shall make her digest what she eats. Of course, she must eat very little indeed."

He wrote his prescription and went away. The servant went to get the drugs, which were dissolved and boiled according to direction, and finally presented to the young girl.

She said that she would take them, and as soon as she was alone threw them out of the port-hole. Thereafter she continued to ask for ten bowls of rice for every meal.

Every one on the ship was now discussing this extraordinary case.

Some said that they ought to call in sorcerers. Others thought that religious men would do better, seeing that she had certainly been possessed by one of those starving spirits which wander without purpose in punishment for their sins, with a needle's eye for a mouth, seeking in vain for food.

At the next town, Ho Chang summoned another doctor. After his examination, mention was made of the former diagnosis, and he burst out laughing.

"Nothing of the sort. It is an internal consumption."

"But what, then, is the reason for this hunger?"

"The hot and the cold principles are at variance in her, and the resultant fire gives her continual opsomania. It is easy to understand."

"But she has no fever."

"Outside she is cool, but she burns within. The malady is inside the bones; and that is why it is not visible. If she had continued to take the drugs which you have been giving her, it would have been difficult to save her. I shall give her something to soothe her bowels. She will then, of her own accord, refuse all food."

It need not be said that it was the same in this case as in the other.

All the medicines went down the river.

Meanwhile the two lovers continued to profit by the silence of the night. Naturally, the young girl was at first, so to speak, pa.s.sive in the arms of the young man, who was himself bashful. But little by little, penetrating further into the domain of pleasure, their amorous intelligence redoubled with their rapture, and they forgot entirely where they were.

One night a slave woke up, and heard a "tsi-tsi-nung-nung" and a "tsia-tsia" coming from within, and then quick breathing. Inwardly surprised, she next day told her mistress, and the mother, seeing that her daughter was always of a brilliantly healthy complexion, began to think this unknown malady a very strange one. She did not inform her husband, however, but ran herself to see her daughter. The child's face seemed to her to be more beautiful and animated even than usual. She went out, without seeing anything which might confirm her suspicion, and, coming back again after breakfast, began gently to question her daughter on her ideas of marriage.

As they were talking, there suddenly came a snore from under the bed.

Ya-nei, after his efforts in the night and his morning meal, had gone to sleep in his hiding-place.

Elegant's mother at once shut the door and, quickly stooping to look under the bed, saw the young man asleep.

"Alas, how could you do this thing? And then frighten us with your illness? Now everybody will know of it. Where does he come from? May Heaven strike him dead!"

Elegant's face was purple with shame.

"It is all your child's fault. He is the son of the Lord Wu."

"Ya-nei? But you have never seen him! Besides, he was at the dinner with your father, and we came away at midnight. How can he be here?"

Trusting in her mother's indulgence, the young girl confessed everything, and added:

"Your unworthy daughter has dishonored our name and lost her innocence. My crime is unpardonable. But it was the will of Heaven.

There had to be that storm to make us meet, and then destiny prevented our betrothal. Our strength was too small for the struggle, and we have sworn to love each other until death. I implore you to speak to my father and appease him; for if he makes an uproar; there is nothing left for me but to die."

Her tears fell like rain. And, while they were talking, Ya-nei's snores sounded like thunder.

"At least make him keep quiet," cried the mother in a fury. "We can no longer hear ourselves speak."

And she went out, slamming the door, while Elegant hastened to awaken the sleeper.