Shanghai Secrets by Sulari Gentill

Author:Sulari Gentill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

CHINESE VERSE

“The Jade Mountain” is a Chinese anthology, edited by Mr. Witter Bynner and Mr. Klang Kang-Hu, and is the result of ten years’ collaboration. It consists of 300 poems of the T’ang Dynasty, A.D. 618–906—the golden age of Chinese poetry. Mr. Bynner has done the translations from the texts of Mr. Klang Kang-Hu, and each editor contributes an introduction. Mr. Bynner thinks that, of English poets, Wordsworth has the closest affinity with Chinese poets. He resembles them in his simplicity, in his sense of spiritual kinship with nature and his capacity for discerning beauty in the commonplace. But Mr. Bynner holds that Chinese poetry cleaves even nearer to nature than his.

—Sydney Morning Herald, 28 June 1930

* * *

Bernardine Szold-Fritz’s banquet was to take place at a Chinese restaurant in Yangtzepoo, beyond the Soochow Creek, which marked the border of the international settlement. The waterway was only a few hundred yards from the terrace on Kiangse Road and was spanned by the impressive double arches of the Garden Bridge.

Their hostess sent a car to collect them, a gleaming white Packard with a smartly uniformed chauffeur.

Rowland offered Edna his hand as she descended the narrow staircase in a shimmering grey gown, which clung to the curves of her figure and highlighted the burnished copper tresses she’d gathered into a loose knot at the base of her neck. The wrap hanging loosely over her elbows was sheer and embroidered with peacocks, her only jewellery a silver locket embellished with seed pearls. She smiled as she took Rowland’s hand. The sculptress was not oblivious to the way in which he looked at her. It was perhaps simply that he had always regarded her thus, that she was not alarmed by the intensity of his admiration. She would not have tortured him for the world if she had known she was doing so.

“You look pretty, Ed,” he said quietly.

Her brow furrowed just slightly. “I do hope this is appropriate for dinner over here. I wish I’d thought to ask Mickey. We might be completely at odds with Shanghai fashion.”

“I’m sure they’ll make allowances.” Rowland’s eyes lingered on the graceful line of Edna’s neck. He could capture it in a portrait from behind, a composition which had her glancing over her shoulder.

She recognised the look on his face and laughed. “You’re painting me!”

“I wish I were.” He glanced at his watch. “I wonder if it would be too late to send our regrets.”

“Yes.” The sculptress was firm. “Where’s Milt?”

“Trying to add some note of personal flair to his dinner suit,” Rowland said, wincing.

“We’ll say goodnight to the others, and perhaps by then he’ll be down.”

Clyde had recruited Harjeet and her brother to make up a four for cards. Rowland had been a little surprised that Singh had agreed to join the party given the tension between the driver and Wing Zau, but perhaps he’d simply done so to keep an eye on the butler as he’d pledged. Harjeet had prepared a feast of finger

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.