Page:Mr. Wu (IA mrwumilnlouisejo00milniala).pdf/92

 Chinese girl?' Well, I say it again—and I hold your sister very dear—I say it again. And I say more: I say, Why not? You have set the example—you and some generations of Christian gentlemen! And I tell you the day of reckoning will come." With a gesture of despair he picked up his discarded pipe and filled it with nice men's opium—tobacco.

When he had lit his pipe, Bradley sat and pulled at it moodily, and for a while Basil, thrashed and sore, sat and watched him. But the prick of personal dilemma could not give way long to, or even be dwarfed by, any thought of a general tragedy, be it as great and terrible even as Bradley averred.

"You said you knew how this was going to end for me"

"And for her! Yes. It began in selfishness. It will go on, forever, in misery. It will end in misery. But there is just one thing now. A crime can never be so damned black that it can't be made blacker. Yours is black enough, and it is going to stop right there. You must marry her."

"I say"

"You needn't. There is nothing for you to say; you have come to me for help, and I am going to help you, as far as I can."

"But"

"Oh! there'll be trouble—plenty of trouble. Wu will never forgive you or the poor child; though it's he himself he ought not to forgive for having let a Chinese girl out and unwatched so with us English about. He'll punish you both, and what Wu does he does well. There'll be no escaping him. No boat will take you beyond his reach, no spot on earth hide you. You can't stay in China with her. Her position would be too in