Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/130

118 "I related my adventures and Shimindra hers, but neither of us said one word of the bezoar.

CHAPTER XVIII

VANLY-CHING

WEEK later I was installed at Bedondo, and as I was bound to have a housekeeper of some sort to put in charge of my house, I asked Monsieur de La Géronnière to give me the charming Shimindra, and he very obligingly agreed to do so. My mind was made up. The branch of trade I meant to follow was Manilla cigars. Even in Europe they run the Havana article close, and throughout the Indian seas they enjoy the preference.

"What had especially suggested the idea to me was the circumstance that in Monsieur de La Géronnière's establishment it was the charming Shimindra to whose care the cigar boxes were entrusted. I resolved, therefore, instead of buying the article ready-made, to have it manufactured on my own premises under Shimindra's superintendence, and so substantially increase the profits.

"Nothing could be easier. We had a sort of shed built in the garden; Shimindra engaged ten young Tagal girls, some of whom came from the Royal manufactory of Manilla, and by the following day I enjoyed the pleasure of seeing my enterprise in full swing. Thanks to Shimindra's active surveillance and her special knowledge, I had nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in.

"This proved my ruin. It is incredible how a casual word, no matter how trivial or even nonsensical, will sometimes stick in the wits and lead to unforeseen consequences. You may remember the two or three words my correspondent had let fall at Monsieur de La Géronnière's supper table about Chinese beauties and a fifth marriage for me; well, there was not an hour of the day and still less of the night that I did not dream of them. No sooner was I in bed and asleep than a regular procession of Chinese damsels marched past my bed, showing me feet—feet that Cinderella's slipper would have been many sizes too big for. It was very strange. I had Shimindra, whose beauty was unquestionable, there were half a score of girls in my cigar factory the plainest of whom, with her great dark eyes, her great velvety eyebrows, the fascinating charm of all her person, would have turned a Parisian's head; yet with all this I could think of nothing but my Chinese charmers.

"The result was that the instant I was out of bed I would go wandering through the Chinese quarter, visiting all the shops, pricing fans, porcelains and screens, picking up two words of Chinese here, two words of Cochin-Chinese there, stammering out all sorts of compliments to the tiny feet hidden under the trailing robes, and returning home at night more determined than ever to satisfy my new caprice.

"In the middle of all this I had met a charming little tea-shop keeper, owning one of the prettiest shops in Bedondo, who had particularly fascinated me by the way she ate her rice with her chopsticks, the instruments which Chinese ladies use instead of spoons and forks. It was more than mere skill, it was as good as a conjuring trick, and I really think it was vanity made pretty Vanly-Ching always have a pilau put on the table whenever there were strangers.

"By the bye, it should be noticed that the two words Vanly-Ching mean ten thousand lilies, so you see the godfathers and godmothers of my Chinese fair one had done her justice by giving her a name to harmonize with her beauty.

"I made enquiries of my correspondent, and the latter, at the very first word I said, lifted his finger to the height of his eye and exclaimed: 'Oh ho! you scamp! you scamp! you!'

"This meant, being interpreted: ' Come, come, you are a mighty lucky fellow to have put your hand on such a prize at the first shot; you have done well!'—and I quite agreed with him.

"Next he informed me that the fascinating Vanly-Ching was a little Chinese orphan; that she had been adopted by a celebrated physician, who had fallen in love with her when she was only twelve, and had married her, though he had reached the age of sixty-five.

"Providence, however, decreed that so disproportionate a union should not last long. In three months' time the worthy