East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck

Author:Pearl S. Buck [Buck, Pearl S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Classics, Historical
ISBN: 9781453263464
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 1930-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

XII

THE DAWN CAME THIS day under a still, gray sky. The air is heavy with late heat and full of dampness. The child frets, although I can find no sickness in him.

The servant returning to-day from his inquiry at my mother’s house brought word that my father has come. It seems that Wang Da Ma took courage to send him a letter through the professional letter-writer who sits at the temple gate, begging humbly that he come because my mother’s strength does not increase. Day after day she sits in her chamber. She cannot eat. My father, receiving the letter, has come home for two days.

I determined, therefore, to go to see him. I dressed my son in red. It is the first time my father has seen him.

I found my father seated by the pool in the Court of the Goldfish. Since the air was hot, and since he is now exceedingly fat, he sat beside the pool clad only in his inner coat and trousers of summer silk, pale as the water under the willows. The Second Lady stood beside him fanning him, although the perspiration rolled down her own cheeks from the unaccustomed exertion; and on his knees sat one of his children in gala dress for his return.

When I entered the court he clapped his hands and cried,

“Aha—aha—here comes the mother and her son!”

He set his child from his knee and bade my son approach, enticing him in a low voice and with smiles. I bowed deeply and he nodded, his eyes still fixed on my son. Then I folded my son’s hands and bade him bow. My father was greatly pleased.

“Aha—aha—” he kept repeating softly. He lifted my son to his knee and felt his round arms and legs, and laughed at his wide, astonished eyes.

“Such a man!” he cried in delight. “Let a slave bring sweetmeats for him! Let the candied persimmons be brought, and the little larded cakes!”

I was dismayed. My child has but ten teeth at best. How then could he eat candied persimmons?

“O my honored father!” I begged. “Consider his tender years. His little stomach is used only to soft food. I beg you—”

But my father waved his hand to silence me and talked to the child. I was compelled to submit.

“But you are a man! And does your mother still feed you on pap? My daughter, I have had sons also—many sons, four or five?—I cannot remember. At any rate, I know more about sons than the mother of only one, even of such an one!” He rumbled a great laugh and continued, “Ah, if my son, your brother, but breeds me such a one as this by the daughter of Li to worship my old bones!”

Since he had mentioned my brother I was emboldened to ask,

“But if he weds a foreigner, my father? It is this fear which wastes away my mother’s heart until she is day by day weaker in body.”

“Pst! He cannot,” he replied lightly. “How can he wed without my consent? It is not legal.

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