Wallis by Anne Edwards

Author:Anne Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2021-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

16

The city Wallis was in might well have been the Peking of the fifteenth century. Not only had the architecture and the city plan remained unchanged, Peking’s soul was unaltered, and political intrigue, treachery and conquest were rife.

Peking was considered a safe harbor for foreigners because of the political power of the legations situated there, most of whom occupied substantial compounds within the Legation Quarter. The United States, Britain, Japan, Netherlands, France and Italy also kept military guards. Although the international community lived in a protected environment, the very nature of their security—the numerous nations that had representation there—created a complex web of intrigue. Spies from almost every major country had made their way to Peking and were existing in the shadows of the recently vacated Inner Forbidden City.

With its massive surrounding walls, Peking, when approached, looked like a giant box. Few of the many temples, pagodas and palaces were higher than the city’s walls and the houses behind them were mostly one story. Built in an exaggerated thickened T-shape, the northern end of Peking, known as the Tatar City, where Kitty and Herman Rogers lived, was protected by still another solid wall and fortified with guardhouses positioned at equal intervals.

A chauffeured car was sent to transport Wallis to her friends’ home. The traffic in Peking was unlike that in the other Chinese cities she had visited. Double-humped camels with heavy freight strapped on their backs were a frequent sight on the wider thoroughfares, along with mule-drawn carts. Bicycles and rickshaws were often ridden ten abreast. The air was filled with the intricate cries of the street hawkers. What little modern transport could be seen most often bore embassy crests, and the cars made their way slowly like elephants in a circus parade. The vehicle in which Wallis was riding—a Rolls-Royce Herman had had imported from Britain—entered the Tatar City near Ha Ta Men Gate and then awkwardly negotiated a series of narrow, crooked lanes. All Wallis could see on either side of her as she stared out the windows were pitted gray walls of mud and plaster. Pedestrians, oncoming rickshaw drivers and bicyclists pressed against the barricades to allow her car to pass. If another automobile had approached there would have been an impasse.

This did not seem to her to be a section of palatial homes. She would learn soon that in Peking the magnificence of a house was always concealed from the street; the finer the residence, the seedier the walls. The chauffeur drew up before a wrought-iron gate and helped her out. Through this opening she entered a spacious cobbled courtyard dominated by an ancient gnarled yew and a sunken lily pond.

Her host and hostess rushed out of a rambling one-story structure roofed with old gray tiles arranged in an intricate herringbone fashion and crossed the courtyard to greet her.

“Welcome! Welcome!” Herman called.

Kitty linked her arm through Wallis’s and led her inside. Rooms were connected by doors cut in the shape of large keyholes. Gray-stone floors were covered with magnificent, thick, brilliantly colored Peking rugs.

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