Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/132



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By 6teanor )W. I>et9tand-)^oore

HMONG the attaches of the American Embassy at Pekin during the late siege was anor- namental man named Folsom» Colonel by courtesy, who had a beautiful daughter, much admired by the Chinese. It does not appear just what Folsom was doing there. His principal occupation was to hoist the American flag over the embassy and to manicure his hands in the private office, when he was not out dining.

Margaret was a charming girl, very clever, but too independent for diplo- macy, and she kept the Colonel fussing half the time. She was blonde, vivaci- ous, slender and graceful, the very anti- thesis of Mongolian beauty, and the yellow-hatted mandarins simply adored her. The Colonel in his heart hated a Chinaman, but Margaret was not at all prejudiced. Among her admirers prob- ably the most distinguished was the young prince, who had more names and titles than the alphabet should sanction ; names reaching all the way from the heights of the sun and moon down to the depths of the ocean. He was familiarly known as Lo Wan See — a good-looking fellow, as Chinamen go, with private longings to cut off his pigtail and wear a Tux- edo. This, however, wab not known.

He had always had an American tutor, and he spoke English admirably. He was not the heir apparent, by several successions. He was a great friend of Li Hung Chang's, and he had met Mar- garet at a dinner given by the Lord of the Peacock Feather to the foreign delegates and their families. Prince Lo was greatly enamored of Margaret, and, strange to say, his passion was re- ciprocated. But the Emperor wouldn't have an American daughter-in-law, and the Colonel hated the Chinese. So it was touch and go — and go it was. Colo- nel Folsom retired from his post and came home to Seattle, bringing Mar garet with him. There she presided over his charming establishment with a grace that made her fame in society ; but she was pale and distraite. The im- age of Lo Wan See filled her heart, and her eyes burned with love and longing. "Damn that Chinaman!" the Colonel said, savagely ; but it is not so easy to curse the "Fourteenth Son of the Seven Shining Stars," "the Radiant Little Lords of the Little Heavens." and so

on.



One day there was a Sound steamer

called the Dode lying at the wharf at

Blaine, which is the Columbian port of

entry in the State of V^shin^pn. It