The San Francisco call. [volume], September 09, 1900, Image 14

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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CHAPTER L
VALDA'S FIRST MEETING WITH THE
S. O.
VALDA BERISKOFF was the
daughter cf a former Rus?!an Min
ister et the court cf Peking. When
Count Berlskoff married an Ameri
can heiress who was globetrotting In
China he was compelled to leave little
VaJda entirely to her Manchu mother.
The mother, on whom the Count be
stowed the pension which backstairs eti
quette has established as proper from a
Minister and wMose connection with a
foreigner It wa.s fortunately possible to
conceal, was sold, together with her pen
elon. to Shenc: Ta-jan, a Chinese mandarin
of the second class, who bc-'onged to th«»
General Council and had the entree of
the Forbidden City. This mandarin hap
pened one day to get into trouble
through a. chip or scratch on one of the
twenty-five seals which passed through
his hands, and was thrown into prison,
during which misfortune he vras bled to
the extent of several hundred dollars a
Cay for the necessaries of life. As he was
not a rich man ruin stared him in the
face, when he was suddenly released, re
instated, and Foon after promoted. His
Manchu concubine had bribed a Manchu
member of the Inner Council In his be
half. What the sum wa«, where rhe had
obtained Jt and by what means she had
"placed" Jt her husbsr.d did not know, but
he Immediately married her and then
gradually admitted her to his confidence
until she obtained an entire ascendency
In the household. In this way little Valda
began l!fe with the advantages of a Chi
nese education. She was also initiated at
an early ace into the mystery of palace
Intrigues, for she became the medium of
communication between her mother and
the Russian legation.
Valfia was not. of course, her Chinese
name. Nor am I cure that it wa* Rus
elan; but we will let that pass.
When she was 10 years of age her Chl-
t
nese life came to an abrupt conclusion.
Valda's mother, being a Manchu. had not
permitted her child to be crippled, and
at this time she was beginning to ride
abroad In a tomboy fashion which scan
dalized her Chinese stepmothers, but
which received the cachet of approval of
a Manchu Prince of sporting proclivities.
One day, having left her groom to drink
wine and play cards at a suburban guard
house, sho was enjoying an evening
gallop all by her lone in the direction of
tho Imperial Hunting Park, when she
was overtaken by three young foreign
ers returning from their Sunday outing
In the hiiLs. They had just taken on
l>oard the last of many stout and cham
pagnes (a favorite Peking beverage), and
were inclined to have some fun. (The
child's equestrian eccentricities had been
talked of in the mess, and she was sup
posed to be a precocious nu-chi.)
Mounted on strong cross-bred ponies,
fed on beans, the young men easily
caucrht up with Valda's little pot-bellied
mare and began to crowd her, with very
Immature Chinese jests picked out of
BtenL Valda had a high spirit, as well
as a malicious humor, and retorted not
only with some choice repartee as culti
vated in the women's quarter, but with
her whip as well. Then one of the young
men, a handsome and stalwart youth In
deed, snatched her off her pony and kiss
ed her. Valda fought wildly and fell to
the ground, spraining her ankle. Her
captor dismounted and, unaware of her
hurt, teased her almost Indecently while
his companions eat on their ponies roar
ing with laughter. They were all mere
boys; one a student Interpreter of the
British legation and the others Junior as
sistants of the revenue mess, six months
out from Europe.
Suddenly the two stopped laughing; the
other, looking up at them and then over
his shoulder, whispered: " :
"Good God. the 'S. G.!' "
Tho two dismounted and the third stood
"If the Tsung Shui-wu Ssu has found
out through the child that we have secret
communications with the Russian, em
bassy my head will pay the forfeit. He
has long suspected that our friends are
intriguing to supplant his Influence and
he Is so cunning and patient that If he
only "discovers your past history he. will
the next day have proof against me. You
When four big men In the livery of the
Superintendent General of Revenues
tipped little Valda out of a big official
chair in front of Sheng Ta-jen's residence
there wn.« consternation In the household.
What It meant Valda could not under
stand; when first her mother and then her
stepfather cross-questioned her over and
over again as to every word that had
passed between her and the S. G. she
began to think that, she had been guilty
of some fearful impropriety. But . the
secret of It all was simply this, In the
words of the mandarin to his wife:
Valda told him the name of the man
darin she believed to be her father, and
the S. G. lapsed Into silence.
"The honorable father Is a military
officer?" In China personal questions are
polite.
"I am not Chinese," sho said, still
sulkily, for all foreigners were as yet
barbarians to her. "I am Manchu. My
mother comes from beyond the wall."
"It Is rather unusual for a young Chi
nese lady to ride abroad and alone. Is It
not?" he said gently, as if he would ex
cuse the ' misbehavior of his fellow-for
eigners.
Hl3 Chinese was perfect— Just as perfect,
both in accent and form of address, as a
native's; so perfect that Valda scarcely
noticed the incongruity. All she noticed
was the voice, grave, gentle, winning,
fascinating.
In the meantime the 8. G. had caught
Valda's pony and replaced her In the
saddle. In ordinary life he was. known as
Mr. Pericord; officially as the Superin
tendent of Imperial Revenues.
VALDA LEAVES PEKING.
HAPTER IL
Heavily the three young men mounted
their ponies, and, starting at a deferential
Jog trot, soon gave the bit to their Im
patient ponies and disappeared in a cloud
of dust, the only word spoken being a
muttered "Damn" from the youth who
had pestered Valda,
The mild-faced personage did not ac
knowledge this remark, but said: "You
had better ride on, gentlemen. The South
gate closes at 7."
"Good evening, sir," they responded
with suspicious alacrity. And the consu
lar man made bold to add, "Pretty warm,
isn't It, sir?"
"Good evening, gentlemen."
"I don't care," said the legation man.
"Your 'S. G." can't say anything to me.
Thank God, i don't serve under a bloom
ing Inquisition."
The sedat" passenger rode up and only
now raising his head, touched his helmet
with his fly-whip and said pleasantly:
"It's all right," whispered another.
"We can say It's an accident. I don't be
lieve he has seen."
"The 'S. G.' not see!" said Blak» bit
terly, "when he sees with his boots!"
up, and 'all looked as sheepish and terri
fied as schoolboys caught by a master.
The cause of the:r discomfiture was the
appearance on the road, a little distance
off, of a mild, insignificant looking per
sonage jogging along on an old white
pony, his head bowed and his mustache
showing the satisfied smile of a valetu
dinarian who feels that his constitutional
has done him good.
"This means the sack," said Blake, the
prime culprit, gloomily.
Great, Britain possesses numbers of "ob
scure celebrities like these, although none
When a T. Pericord, Esquire, of Peking,
was gazetted In the list of British '.'birth
day honors," when the rumors went
abroad that he had been asked for the
second time to become the British Minis
ter at Peking, with an earldom for a
bribe, people scarcely talked of It; none
knew who he was, or what he had done,
and as the society gabbler dreads nothing
so much as to appear ignorant of other
people's biographies he shunned the topic
of Pericord.
In consequence of this unbroken con
nection with Chinese politics Valda was
never allowed to forget- the hero of her
childhood. The quiet, reserved figure of
the S. G. was always before her eyes,
although he shunned _ advertisement as
sedulously as politicians court it. His
name never appeared in the t»apers. None
outside the cabinets knew of his exist
ence.
During the next seven years Valda was
transformed into a modern Russo-Frencli
society girl. She acquired all tho usual
accomplishments and what was Mongolian
in her was no more in evidence than it is
in pure bred Russians. The only point
in which she differed from her fellows
was in her remarkable aptitude for and
experience in Asiatic politics. This gained
her something like a European reputation
owing to her father's peculiar arrange
ment that she should be periodically In
troduced to the Chinese Ministers of the
different countries In which her education
was carried on. By the age of 15 I think
she was known by sight to all the at-»
taches of the Chinese embassies in Ber
lin, Paris and London, and regarded both
by them and by diplomats as a Russian
spy of quite a new and harmless sort.
It Is not usual for spies. to call openly
at embassies. Valda knew twice as mucn
about Peking intrigues as all the Foreign
officials put together and it ended in them
seeking her, not her them. It was a com
mon Jest of gray-haired Ministers to say,
when China came on to the carpet. "We
must send for Miss Valda Beriskoff. *
This flattered the Count. For once the
epithet "Russian spy" became an epithet
of admiration and endearment and gave
Valda a unique eclat when she finally
made her debut In society.
"It happened that within a year of her
return the Count, who was now in the
Foreign Office, had occasion to conduct
some delicate negotiations in connection
with the Kuldja treaty In which it was
of advantage to him to be able to deal
direct with a special Chinese envoy with
out the intervention of the resident Em
bassador's interpreter. In this Valda's
Chinese came In opportunely, enabling
him to score quite a little diplomatic tri
umph. Without any definite prosj>ects for
her future he nevertheless saw the possi
bilities of the case und was careful, in
the scheme of her education, to provide
against her entirely forgetting her Chi
nese. Nothing more was necessary, than
that she should hold a brief conversation
with one of her fellow-countrymen every
few months and this was easily arranged.
VALDA'S RETURN TO CHINA.
CHAPTER III
Every woman can probably picture to
herself just how the girl felt as she fol
lowed him; ,the unrelenting blush of
shame, the Impotent self-hatred, the sen
pation of being dragged by her pony'3
tail rather than carried on his back.
When they passed through the gate she
relieved him of her company without a
word, and turning up a side street, roSe
furiously through narrow alleys followed
by a pandemonium of imprecations from
the coolies whose stalls or burdens she
upset.
And that was the last impression Valda
carried away with her of the city of her
birth. Through the agency of the Rus
sian legation she was placed in the Jesuit
Foundling Convent at Tientsin for a year
to teach her French, after which she was
packed off to lier father in St. Petersburg,
he having of his own initiative sent for
her in the interim. His wife having died
and left him her fortune without other
incumbrar.ces, the, Count had determined
to seek out his Chinese daughter to amuse
his declining years. When he saw how
remarkably handsome and Intelligent Kh-j
was, ha decided to adopt her and gave her
the best Continental education.
The S. G. was really bored, if he was
not positively annoyed by this tactless in
trusion; but his almost feminine intuition
showed him the child's perplexity, and
with a good grace he resigned himself to
the complete interruption of his thoughts.
The only discourtesy he ua&tl was the one
best calculated to relieve the strangt; girls
embarrassment. He took out his watch
and discovered that it was'inuch later
man he thought, and therefore suggested
a canter.
"My ankle?" That was all poor little
Valda could say. Something so much less
simple than a forgotten sprain was pain
ing her, but she coulU not then inter
pret what it was. And so she said
nothing and wished she had died before
fche had accosted him, while at the same
time keeping timidly by his side because?
she could think of no other way thata be
ing swallowed up by the carui by which
she could excuse herself on that desolate
road.
"Thank me, my child— what for? A"h,
now 1 remember your lace; It is fur me to
ask pardon for my discourtesy in forget
ting it. I trust your ankle no longer paind
you?"
Mr. Pericord brought his old pony to a
walk and dismissed the cares of state for
the winning suavity which his enemies
called "soft soap," but which was tne
quiet, unaffected kindness of a great and
gracious nature.
"Ta-jen— pardon— but I want to, I must
thank you. v Forgive, please forgive— the
small one's impertinence."
Valda gazed after the bowed figure on
the white pony with a feeling which
choked her; a disappointment that was
despair — a stupefaction which a child
might feel who was struck by a passer
by. Then, stung by her innate daring
and impulsiveness, she smote her pony
smartly and overtook him.
"Ching, young master," he responded,
gravely, as he passed, but so absently
that he mistook Valda for a boy.
The S. G. raised his eyes. He was riding
In a brown study, for he was about to
bring off his great coup in the opium con
vention, and the affair was so delicate and
audacious and involved such an immense
change in the revenue that in spite of hla
Napoleonic power of closing the door of
his brain during this brief hour of relaxa
tion he could not dismiss the subject from
his thoughts.
In this trepidation Valda was kept a
close prisoner for a week, with the result
that one afternoon she slipped away with
out telling any one and waylaid the S. G.
on his customary constitutional.
"Ching, Lord," she accosted him,
humbly.
"To be under the eye of his Hankow
commissioner," said the lady, bitterly.
"How can you escape his vigilance if once
you rouse his suspicion. The network of
his agents extends to the four corners of
the empire."
must go down to my home In Wuchang
at once, wife."
THE WALLS OF PEKING.
Valda, as a child, had traveled from Pe
king to. Tientsin by boat, a leisurely four
days' journey. She returned by rail in
four hours. Somehow her hereditary in
stincts told her that this thing was ab
normal, not of the soil. When she found
that the line terminated as soon as the
long squat walla with their uncouth tow
ers brcke the sky line, the uneasy fore
boding was confirmed. It was a viola
tion of traditions as venerable and Im
movable as those walls that swift artifi
cial traction should cut an unheeding
path through the feng-shuis of graves
and antiquity which hallowed these bar-
ren plain.". If only (some passionate mis
giving cried within her) the noisy an
achronism had been able at once to carry
itself right through that barrier, tho spell
of seclusion might have been dissipated
forever. But there ahead still couched
the squat, grim monster of the ancient
city, intact. Bardo'nical. gazing with Us
blank mud brow toward the arrested in
novation, sluggishly cherishing the an
cient backwardness and all its vast mys
j/rlous potentiality of resistance and re
sentment. Valda knew the city and its
people; born there, the sluggish foulness
of its poverty and .millions rested a remin
iscent groundwork for her Intuitive com
prehension of its character and senti
ment; and as in advance she pictured to
herself, behind the flat gray mound, the
mazy panorama of miles and miles of
narrow winding alleys, swarming with the
antlike industry of stolid crowds, it seem
ed to her that the steel rails and im
bedded trestles over which the steam
horse thundered were mere ephemeral
cobwebs, spun only to be swept away.
Valda- expressed a wish to hire a native
cart to carry her through the Chinese
city to the Chien Men, instead of using
the buggy which the Minister had sent
to meet her. Valda's origin had, of
course, been sedulously concealed, and it
appeared perfectly natural to the attache
who escorted her that this, charming
young woman should be curious to see
Chinese Peking before immuring herself
in the aristocratic avenues of the Tartar
city.
The jolting cart, with its rude and 'com
fortless utilitarianism of construction, re
stored Valda to a sense of home-coming
which the railway, the mode of travel to
which she had been accustomed for the
past eight years, had entirely failed to im
part. This was China: this was the Im
memorial civilization of tho East based on
the only primitive foundations of expe
dience and economy. Trained in culture
and luxury as she had been, she now felt
a scornful contempt for the showy ex
travagances which Western civilization
had grown to depend on as indispensables.
And then she smiled on her companion
and said, with a charming shudder;
"What hopeless barbarity everywhere!"
CHAPTER IV.
After a year of futile efforts the Count
entirely lost his temper. The alliance
meant everything to him. Its defeat meant
ruin, lie told Valda that she was illegit
imate, that he intended to disinherit her.
and that the best thing she could do was
to bo back to China and marry a coolie.
Valda took him at his word and raid
quietly that there was nothing she would
desire so much. The Count had an apo
plectic fit and died soon after.
Valda returned to China as the ward of
the Russian Minister at Peking. She had
a good wardrobe, a sparkling presence,
Parisian accomplishments and the grand
style. Peking, with its attaches of every
nationality, is not such a bad hunting
ground for a portionless belle, and Valda
could have made a better match than
her origin warranted if she had desired
ar.d her guardian had approved. 3he did
not', , however, marry.
• Stfie youns Russian took her place, of
course, in the holy of holies of Peking
society, which, as it numbered in all abuui
one hundred members (excepting only
missionaries and children), divided itself
In more numerous, exclusive and .scandal
mongcr'ng cliques than even in Shang
hai' or Simla. Passing globetrotters and
parliamentary journalists, entertained by
their Ministers and Invited everywhere
with an alacrity which would bo suspi
cious to less unsophisticated persons, go
home with storied of the large hospitality
of the Far East and the homeliko good
fellowship which exists among ull the
members of these Isolated settlements.
They little wot of all the heart-burningj
which trouble these worthy goodftllows,
especially 'over the priority of getting the
ear of a stranger.
PITAPTER TV
But to the Count's amazement Valda
refused to obey him. She said she did
not want to marry. The Count. s-?riousiy
alarmed, questioned her very closely, but
could discover no symptoms of a clandes
tine love affair. The girl. In faci. showed
a supercilious indifference to all the" hand
some gallants whose names her father
tentatively introduced. What was th<:
meaning of this? The girl was incompre
hensible. Scmply, sho did not want to
marry at all. Incidentally the idea of this
Prince. filled her with loathing.
When Valda was seventeen years of age
the Prince PaulOBkoflC Tomsk: (I am sorry
I don't know the correct, way of writing
these names) sought her hand in ma'r
riagc. The Count, to whom the proposal
was made, was delighted. It was the
crown of his life's ambition. He Informed
Valda of the honor awaiting her and de
sired her to arrange the date of the cere
mony without delay, as the Prinoe was
liable to die at any minute. I don't sup
pose he told Valda this in so many words,
for the Prince made up well enough to
deceive a girl as to his age and the dis
ease which was destroying him did not
admit of detailed description.
In this way the memory of the S. G.
was perpetuated in r.tr growing mind; a
sort of dream,' crowded down by bare dry
facts of colorless reality.
And as, year after year, year after year
went by and still the Tsung Shul-wu Ssu
remained tha chief name to conjure by in
all the Chinese embassies, she began to
think that she must have been mistaken
in associating it with a person win had
Interested himself in her. The name must
stand for some ancient and immovable in
stitution like that of the Board of Rites
or of the Dragon Throne itself. It could
rot refer only and individually to a slight,
mild-faced, middle-aged man with a
gentle voice and absent-minded eyes, who
never went anywhere except to sneak out
by the side door of his fu for a timid
amble in the dusk of the evening, who
had been afraid to say a word to his own
employes, and who, it was said, had no
other way of amusing himself than by
shutting himself up In a back room and
playing a melancholy big fiddle.
But to Valda this name possessed al!
the significance it possessed up and down
the coast of China and in the palaces of
the Forbidden City.
wielding such power as wielded by this
Mr. Pericord in another country's service.
Sir Claude Macdonald. Lord Kitchener.
Milner, Rhodes — only when some trill?
such as a war or a massacre brings their
name Into prominence does society dis
cover that they have been potentates for
years.
"You are far and away the cleverest
woman In Peking," said Mr. Samovar,
"and you are the only one of the lot who
understands the first thing about Asiatic
politics. Tho opportunity presents itself
to you to perform a signal service for
your country- You are aware that wa
Intend to annex Manchuria to our Amur
province of Eastern Siberia. There are a
great many exceedingly delicate questlor.3
connected with this stride, each one of
which. In some inexplicable fashion, set-ma
to come round to, and depend on, this
sphinx-like Mr. Pericord. Not the least
Important of these questions is that con
nected with the collection of duties at th»
port of Nluchwang, which Is at present
administered by the department which ha
controls. Now If Manchuria is to ba a
part of Russia, Nluchwang. which la tha
port of Mukden, should b© administered,
and Its tariff regulated, by us. We wer©
already In process of pacifically engross
ing this port by means of certain loans or
railway concessions, when the United
States Government, which Ignores all tha
Valda listened to these boudotr anec
dotes with silent Indignation. But what
were her feelings when her guardian began
to hint that she herself was expected to
use her charms on behalf of Russian
diplomacy?
THE S. G.
VALDA'S SECOND MEETING WITH
CHAPTER VI.
But If the young men practiced and
hoped, what of the wives of secretaries
and assistants who had intrigued to ob
tain a transfer to Peking for tha express
purpose of offering their charms to the
retiring grass-widower? It had come to
be accepted as the duty of all married
women in tho revenue service to forget
their modesty when the chance presented
Itself to obtain their husband's promotion,
by a little bit of flirtation; and every ono
in Peking except the S. G. himself knew
that every woman attended his receptions
with this avowed intention. In. fact it
was whispered that they even ca3t lota
among themselves as to whose turn It
should be to monopolize tha bashful old
bachelor and Inveigle him Into his con
servatory.
And now It was that the S. G., tho
Veiled Prophet of the Revenue Myth, ad
the young consulars delighted to dub him
to their chums of the I. K. D.. came ouc
of his shell and condescended to show
himself once a month at a public dinner,
and even to be at home to callers once a
week. Every young man who could play
a- musical instrument was^. now to havo
the chance of a lifetime of attracting tho
personal attention of the S. G.. and anec
dotes were revived of all the "careers"
that had been made by a happy knack of
the banjo or a fluty mouthing of the
clarionet.
But it was not till the winter came,
cutting off Peking from all the world by
its barrier of ice in the Gulf of Pech'.ll.
that the brilliant little society of Legation
street was thrown entirely on its own
resources for amusement. The opening
of the skating rink— the flooded tennis
grounds of the Peking Club — Inaugurated
the three months nf isolation with a bril
liant display of Chinese furs, both on tha
caps and cloaks of the high mandarins
invited and on the muffs and jackets of
the foreign women. Sleigh rides, tobog
gan parties, soirees and ball3 replaced
the languid garden parties and picnic
excursions of the oppressive summer and
for the rest, all the world (a few hundred
persons at the most) depended on the S.
G.'s fortnightly courier service for tho
mails from Shanghai.
The next day Valda borrowed one of tha
Minister's ponies and rode ou: along the
Tungchau road alone. She returned de
jected. Whenever she could escape th«s
round of gayetics— the tennis parties and
afternoon teas at the Peking Club, tha
picnics to the hills, the undress uoudoir
calls, the official receptions — she rode out
if possible alone: but whether it was be
cause the your.g men of tha messes al
ways happened to be emerging from their
"barracks" just as she parsed, or be
cause the dust blinded her, or because sha
found the country too squalid and unin
teresting, the effect of her gallops seemed
only to be depression and weariness, ar.d
she soon abandoned them. It was only
by accident that she learned later thac
the S. G. had been out of tha capital,
summering at a coast resort called Pei
tai-ho. And he returned, as he went, un
announced.
"I don't think he has accepted an in
vitation for the last five years— since ha
relieved himself of — rs. Pericord'd dicta
torship. They do say he takes a consti
tutional occasionally, but if so he man
ages to slip out of the city by a tunnel or
an airship, for no one ever encounters
him."
"Oh, Cinderpan? He's only one of th*
royal family, a vice assistant temporary
acting secretary or something of the sort,
who relieves the great man of the onus
of performing the common courtesies of
society. It's a wonder we were not re
ceived by his boy. He looks upon us as a
lot of idle butterflies who have got to b»
kept in good humor, but as to condescend
ing to appear tit his own garden parties—
oh, you cannot expect that of a man who
collects the revenue of the Chinese em
pire—and keeps his own private band."
Valda smiled charmingly. She seemed
to find her companion's wit full of enter
tainment.
"Then does the S. G. never go out.
"You did not tell me there had been a
change in the head of the revenue ser
vice. Captain Vassilich," Valda said.
wearily.
"I don't suppose I did. If I could have
told you that I could have as easily to!rt
you that the Great Wall had taken unto
itself wing3 and Joined the chorus of
angels."
Valda turned on him quickly: her eyes
flashed with painful eagerness. "But
surely that young man who appears to
act as host la not the Superintendent
General who was here before I wa»
born?"
"Take my arm. illss EeriskoftT." snM
the military attache. "The Minister will
be buried in a game of whist with tho
other gr&yteards for the next three hours.
so you must allow me to be your chap
eron. What Co you think of thr> S. O.'s
private musicians? The man divides hli
time equally between them and the rev
enue, and they say the revenue runs it
self while the S. G. runs the band."
Valda scarcely glanced at the old
young man (hl3 face was that of a boy.
but his hair was prizzled at the sides): a
feeling of bitter disappointment beset her
and she turned her eyes away with such
a look In them as a woman might wear
whose life dream had bten cruelly shat
tered.
Valda entered the beautiful grounds,
hung with endless chains of paper lan
terns and idealized by the soft strains of
the famous band, with <i fluttering un
easiness which contrasted strangely with
her habitual self-assurance. tSh<j was re
ceived by a florid young man with a
Scotch accent. "We are delighted to wel
come so charming an accession t<> our dull
society here," he said, with elaborate
clumsiness.
Valda blushed indignantly and turned
away. She understood the insinuation
and was not shocked at her guardian's
indelicacy, because she was accustomed
to the manners of Russian noblemen: but
it hurt her that even diplomatic scandal
could associate the least suggestion of
sensuality with the face which abode in
her memory as the type of goodness.
ency General of Chines© Imperial Reve
nues on Saturday next."
"Mr. Pericord?" she said questlonlngly.
In a voice which caused the Minister to
look at her searchingly. "Is the Super
intendent General a— a bachelor?"
M de Samovar uttered a low laugh.
M Ha, ha,' Miss Valda, you aim at tha
highest from the start, then? For our
own sakes I wish he were, but no such
luck. Mr. Pericord has a genius for ren
dering himself inaccessible to feminine*
Intrigues. Mrs. Pericord has lived in
London for the past five years, but the
S. G. lets it be fully understood that he
Is only a grass widower, and only to' that
extent . . ."
"Mr. Pericord requests the pleasure of
Miss Beriskoff's and H. E. M. de Samo
var's presence at a garden party to be
held in the grounds of tne Superintend-
Valda was at once embarked on the full
tide of the gayctles of Peking society,
and invitations poured in on her. every
salon being eager to ciaim this new at
traction before Its rivals. A ball at the
French legation, a dinner at the British,
a hill picnic by the students' mess, were
organized in her special honor within the
first fortnight; but the Invitation which
alone excited her anticipations was a
plain, unpretentious card bearing these
printed words:
SOCIETY IX PEKING.
CHAPTER V.
"With all my heart, If by so doing I
could stave off the yellow union • which
would swallow up Russia in half a cen
tury. But what an astonishing insight
Into Asiatic politics you seem to possess
Miss Berlskoff!" *
"Oh, I read the papers, you know," 8 ha
answered.
"Never!" said the captain sharply. "I
for my part would sooner let loose the
whole flood of fanaticism which is brood
ing like a poisonous miasma (he waved
his hand toward the crowded alleys) all
around us in a million secretive hearts
than see Japan paramount at Peking."
"And be yourself Its first victim, most
likely," said Valda scornfully.
"Or New Tokio."
"Oh, they will pass, they will pass—un
til they do pass. We must put up with
their airs for a year or two longer, I sup
pose, until Peking is called Alexander
burg."
"I am afraid you have not a very good
opinion of your fellow Europeans in Pe
king, Captain Vassilich."
"We should be absolutely frivolous If It
were not again for that solemn-faced gen.
tleman I referred to just now. Somehow
one can't come within a block of the man
without feeling either choked with an at
mosphere of statistics or chilled with an
atmosphere of secret reports. The poor
fellow lacks what these prigs of English
call our 'Muscovite Veneer.' He wears a
worried look, to quote the ghastly vul
garity of these student boys."
'•So that is what you think yourselves?"
laughed Valda, rallying.' "Are you so very
gay, then?"
"Come, come," said the attache' gallant
ly, taking advantage of the gloom to press
her hand. "That is not exactly the spirit
in which a debutante should look forward
to the most brilliant little coterie of fash
ion to be found east of Moscow."
"I don't Ilka to think of It," Valda
murmured with a shiver. "Suppose, with
out war or a siege cr anything like that,
the crowd were to turn against us; the
legations, I mean? What hope of escape
should we have?"
"Revolvers for us and arsenic for you,"
replied the Russian.
They were by this time passing under
the long and gloomy tunnel of the gate.
"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
whispered Valda. as if afraid that the
guards should ever hear her.
"Well, there is the population: you
can't exterminate that. Ten thousand or
fifty thousand men (they would have to
keep together) wouldn't cover a square
incli on a chart of a city '.ike this. There
are walls all around them which can't be
crossed in a r.op, skip and a Jump. Where
would you be if the Chinese got hold of
the gates and mounted a few guns on tha
wail TV
"What do you mean by a death-trap?"
"You seem well up In the topography
of the old shop," the attache said in sur
prise. "But you have touched the kernel
o£ the matter: It la that we count on if
we should ever have to hold Peking—
against other powers. An enemy once
within the walls, but outside the Imperial
wall, would be in a death-trap. Peking
could only be taken by starvation."
"There would still remain the Imperial
City," said Valda. halt to herself. "And
the palace after that."
"The walls could be defended at any
one point?.! he replied, indifferently. "But
they have a circuit of twenty or thirty
miles, so. that it would not be difficult to
tcale them somewhere — if one had 100.000
men to spare for simultaneous assaults
from half a dozen quarters."
Valda was astonished. "Do you mean
to say that Peking would be capable of
standing a siege?"
"The people who sidy that imagine that
Chinese walls are the same as those of
medieval cities of Europe. Granite or
brick walls are merely death-traps to
those behind them. Mud embankments
fifty feet thick are advocated nowadays
as the only protection against shell tire.
That is what these walls are, only they
are too high and these towers are ex
plosive targets. When they lave been
battered a little they will form a ridge
over a hundred feet thick, in which even
siege shells would bury themselves."
"They do say so," sneered the Russian
attache, "We* have a habit of despising
systems we do not use."
-""But I suppose it is true that these
walls could offer no resistence to artil
lery?"
"They fcay these huge walls serve no
other purpose than to keep out the fresh
air." she said pensively: "that they would
be worse than useless for defense."
Half nn hour before Valda had looked
forward to the wall as to an old familiar
friend, harmless and homelike; now its
awful antiquity and strength crushed her
with an unspeakable sense of foreboding.
The barrier to the civilization of the
West: the rampart of the prejudices of
the Kast: and yet folding in its massive
womb a brood of the very snakss who
were plotting Its downfall. The ugly
simile— Valda knew Milton and Dante
better than Chu-Tza or Mencius— had
scarcely occurred to her than she repented
it revulsively. and, thinking softly of the
man whom her companion had called a
solemn-faced dullard, felt hopelessly that
her metaphor should have been that of
angels hugged in the embrace of a cobra.
A shadow fell over the cart. Valda
looked up and shuddered. In fr^nt of
thorn, po close that it seemed that it might
fall and crush them, loomed a vast clifT
like embankment, a square tower of un
couth solidity squatting heavily alone. It
was the city wall. Sheer from a rubbly
basi it towered, gray and crumbling, yet
massive and inscandible; far as the eye
could' reach it stretched away on either
hand, clean-cut and straight, solidly but
tressed, ponderously yet symmetrically b?
towered. In front of them the black
arched mouth of a tunnel, appearing in
proportion to the cliff it pierced a mere
burrow, yet wide and lofty enough to ad
mit three loaded camels abreast. Scat
tered on either side of the road, a suburb
of caravansaries, mat sheds, reed huts,
dwarfed to the proportions of beehives
and eueumfcer frames.
"Oh. the British Minister docs not
alarm us," replied the young diplomat,
"with a smile of approval for his compan
ion's intelligence. "Our stumbling block is
Mr. Pericord, the S. G. I. R. D. Fortu
nately we have the assurance of Holy
Writ that no man can live forever, or the
impregnable persistence of this solemn
faced dullard would drive our Minister to
despair."
"The S. G.," murmured Valda softly.
Then s,he lapsed into silence.
"So? They told me that Sir Claude had
succumbed unresistingly to the precedent;*
of Sir Thomas Wade."
"But for one man we should dictate the
Yamen's policy, annex the land, and
monopolize the trade of each district in
succession as soon as we were ready to
assimilate it."
"Ah!" Valda remembered. Intrigue — a
patient relentless purpose— International
rivalries forever wrestling In mortal strife
beneath the tranquil surface of stereo
typed courtesies — and behind, in the back
ground, gaping with vacant grin, the
countless millions of China, "storing up
beneath their apathy an energy which
might submerge Russia itself in the flood.
"Our Influence Is already paramount, I
hear?" suggested Valda.
"We shall change It all -when Russia
rules Peking," responded the attache.
THE SUNDAY CALL.
14
VALDA A ROMANCE
OF PEKING