Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/102

RV 97 (THE PEAR GARDEN) out her caresses, how could he endure the bitter two-edged tongue of the Empress? Bitter indeed was the tea which on rare occasions he was forced to drink with her. She was a good woman. He accepted the fact without demur. But it hurt violently when it was flung unexpectedly in his teeth. Yes, Mei-fei was a refuge to which he could flee from the cares of Empire or his wife's discord. Sometimes, in humility, he called himself, "The Imperfect Emperor." However, the Empress took the statement too literally.

He appeared at Court in plain, simple garb, while his officers and ministers glittered in gold and jewels. Despite this, no one could have mistaken his nobility, nor confused him with those who bowed and fawned and touched their foreheads to the floor. He needed jewels no more than the mountains or the sea. His intellect was a light toward which all men turned with awe.

Near by a eunuch stood, holding a parrot.

"Give me the little green-coated chatterbox," said the Emperor.

The bird seemed gratified at the attention.

"I would make you a duke," he said, "were it not for your plumage. Except for that, you match my courtiers, and you are never a worry to me."

Five colored clouds of happiness illumine the sky, and only one gray cloud of sadness, but it was this gray cloud that hung over Changan. A melancholy autumn RV 97 (97)