The Island Where Time Stands Still (9 page)

In the sunny courtyard several palanquins and scores of bearers were waiting. A-lu-te led the way to one with pale green silk curtains, got into it, and told Gregory to walk beside her. At her order the bearers lifted it and set off at a walking pace. She had left the curtains of the palanquin undrawn, and as they passed through the gate he said:

‘I'm afraid you must think very badly of me for having shown reluctance to agree to your proposal; but you may be right and I am not yet quite normal. Anyway, I can assure you that I am sane enough to feel deep appreciation of the kind heart that impelled you to make it.'

She smiled, but her voice held a slightly ironical note as she replied. ‘I can claim no credit for my conduct. It was simply that I wished to have you for a slave,'

This calm confession took him completely by surprise, yet his equally ironical retort came swiftly. ‘I thought the Chinese had given up slave-owning long ago; but if you are still living in the dark-ages here, I hope I'll make you a good one.'

‘There are many degrees of slavery,' she said lightly. ‘It is my wish that yours should be as little irksome to you as possible. Is there any particular work for which you have a preference?'

‘You are most considerate, but I detest all work. It just happens that I was born lazy.'

‘Before very long you would get tired of doing nothing. Besides, for some time to come it is important that you should have an occupation to take your mind off your bereavement.'

He glanced at her with new respect. ‘Yes; there is something in that. All right, set me to work at anything you like, providing it has nothing to do with a machine. I detest getting my hands oily or greasy.'

‘Do you know anything about gardening?'

‘Not much; and nothing about gardening in the tropics. But I like growing things. Since the war ended I have had a house in the country; and whenever I've been at home in
England I have taken a great interest in my garden.'

‘Then you shall keep yourself healthy by working in mine. But I have another quite different occupation already planned for you, and I hope you may derive some pleasure from it.'

‘What is it?' he asked a shade suspiciously.

‘It is to talk to me.' She turned towards him on her cushions and he saw that the irises of her almond-shaped eyes had flecks of gold in them, as she went on with sudden bitterness: ‘I hate it here! For the old ones it is well enough. They have succeeded in putting time back to where they would have it. To live a life of decorum in comfort and security is all that they desire. But for me this island is a gilded cage. From it, I can see no hope of physical escape, but at least my mind is free. With books, and periodicals, and my radio, I have learned English well enough to understand it perfectly; so I can follow all the great events that happen in the outer world, and even form a vague idea of their setting. But never to have travelled is a great handicap. There are still a thousand things I want to know. The young men of our Seven Families go to the great universities in America and Europe, but my opportunities to talk with them are comparatively few. With you I look forward to conversing without interruption every day. The variety of subjects on which I wish to be informed is infinite, and as an educated Englishman I feel sure that you have a wide knowledge of the world. Will you act as my magic carpet and carry me with your words across the great oceans to the sights I long to see?'

Gregory now understood a lot that had been puzzling him about this young woman, and he said at once, ‘It so happens that I have travelled in many countries; so I am better qualified than most people to do as you ask. It will be a pleasure to tell you all I can about anything you want to know.'

He was still speaking when they caught the first sounds of confused shouting behind them. Glancing back down the half mile of the avenue of palms they had covered while
talking, he saw that a commotion had broken out in front of the palace. People were running in all directions and some of them were throwing themselves on the ground. Bad news travels fast, and when next Gregory looked round a runner was speeding towards them. The bearers of the palanquin heard his shouts. Without orders they halted, set their burden down, and broke into a loud wailing. As the man raced past, still yelling, A-lu-te stared at Gregory, her mouth half open, her eyes distended.

‘What is it?' he asked impatiently. ‘What the devil's the matter?'

‘The Emperor!' she gasped. ‘The Emperor! The runner was crying out that he has just been found dead.'

It transpired that the Emperor had been stung on the tongue by a wasp during the night, and had choked to death before he could summon help. As he was a man of only thirty-two and in excellent health his death came as a totally unexpected blow to his people. Except for those who had important duties, everyone abandoned work and shut themselves up to mourn his loss.

To this the lady A-lu-te was no exception. When they reached her home she gave orders to the Number-one Boy that Gregory was to be accommodated in a small pavilion in the garden. Then, having asked him not to leave the vicinity of the house, she went to her room and did not emerge from it for the next seventy-two hours.

In consequence it was not until three days later that Gregory learned of the crisis that the Emperor's death had brought about in the affairs of the island; but during this time he picked up quite a lot about the pattern of life led there.

Ho-Ping was his informant, as it was part of the doctor's duty to find out how Gregory had escaped from the cage; and he paid him two visits with that object. Thinking it to be just possible that there might come a time when he was put in the cage again, Gregory exercised his usual learyness in such matters and refrained from disclosing the truth. The lowest branches of the overhanging tree were so obviously out of reach from the roof of the building that no one had thought of it as a possible means of escape, and he stuck to his story that he had jumped from the roof to the cliff face. In vain the doctor argued that for any ordinary man such a leap was impossible. Gregory maintained
that his athletic prowess made him an exception; so after a second attempt to get at the truth, there the doctor had to leave it.

On both occasions, after dead-lock had been reached on the subject, they had talked for a while of other things; and, now that Gregory's attachment to the Hsüan household had been sanctioned. Ho-Ping no longer showed any disinclination to answer his questions frankly.

He learned that conditions on the island were an interesting blend of the old and the new. As Sze Hsüan had told him, the object of its colonisation had been to preserve a society in which the Confucian tradition could be maintained; but it was observed only as a spiritual guide to the right conduct of life.

Women enjoyed a much greater freedom than they had in the old China, although the degree of liberty they were allowed was still at the individual discretion of their fathers or husbands. It had always been considered the first duty of Chinese women to preserve their attractions, so that they might continue until well on into middle age to delight their husbands, and they were particularly proud of their beautiful hands and figures; so, to this end, it had become traditional that apart from cooking, which was regarded as an art, none but the wives of coolies should ever do any menial work. This gave them ample leisure to beautify themselves and enjoy a very full social life, mainly composed of family celebrations. But there was no dancing at these functions, there were no cinemas on the island, and only the immediate relatives of the Mandarins were allowed to own radio sets.

As the most satisfactory means ever devised for protecting marriage, the ancient institutions of concubinage had been retained, but with regulations that safeguarded the interests of the girls concerned. For each month that a concubine spent in a man's household he had to bank in her name a sum sufficient to keep her in modest circumstances for six months. She was free to leave him whenever she chose, and if it was to marry—as most of them
did—she was allowed to draw the money as her dowry. If she failed to marry before her attractions faded the money was paid out in the form of a pension to support her in honourable retirement. The man who took her had to keep her for a minimum of three months. At any time after that he could dismiss her, but he remained responsible for the upbringing of her child, should she have conceived one while living with him temporarily; and, of course, for that of any children born to her during their association should it—as more often than not proved the case—turn out to be a long one.

There were no brothels, and no large harems in which numbers of idle, frustrated women languished in gilded captivity. Any man, married or single, could take a concubine, but the coolies were permitted to maintain only one, the artisans and petty officials two, the professional class and members of the Seven Families there, and the Mandarins themselves four. The Emperor was catered for by a modification of old Imperial custom. In China, at an appropriate age, the heir presumptive had been given a harem of two or three dozen young women of good family. In due course—the only qualification being that the girl should be of pure Manchu blood—he raised one or more of them to the rank of wife, while the rest remained concubines. Here, each of the Seven Families provided him with a concubine, and from them he chose one to be his future Empress.

There was no poverty in the island, as life had been organised to become as nearly as possible self-supporting. The staple foods were rice and fish, but a great variety of fruits and vegetables were grown, there were several large poultry farms, a dairy herd, and in the forest along the north coast a small army of pigs was preserved to provide meat. The revenue from the export of faked antiques far more than sufficed to pay for imports, the principal of which were raw materials and oil to run the electric power plants. From the surplus came the salaries of the official and professional classes, all of whom ranked as Civil Servants. The Mandarins
received no salaries, but all of them possessed large private fortunes and each contributed one-fifth of his income to the treasury of the Emperor; apart from which there were no taxes.

Imports, other than necessities, were restricted in order to maintain a balanced budget. In 1913, when the emigration had taken place, motor cars were still only very rarely to be seen in China, so here they had been permanently ruled out as redundant; but many labour-saving devices had been adopted, refrigerators were installed in all the better-class houses, and electric stoves for cooking. Perfumes, which from the earliest times have rejoiced the hearts of Chinese women of all classes, silks and tea were the only luxuries imported in any quantity; but the privileged families were allowed to send for books, wine, gramaphone records and other special items that they desired.

Spirits, tobacco and coffee were prohibited to all as a wasteful expenditure, but the time-honoured pleasures of smoking opium and chewing nuts were allowed, although the former was rationed as a restraint on individual excess.

All children received primary education, but as the girls often married at the age of fifteen they left school when ten years old to learn household duties from their female relatives at home. At that age, too, the boys were separated into three groups for further attention at schools which taught mainly agriculture, crafts and the higher learning respectively. At thirteen, a few, who at the first showed special intelligence, were transferred to which ever seemed the most suitable of the other schools, while the remainder were put to light work out of doors. At fifteen the majority of boys at the school of crafts went into the factories, but the brightest amongst them were transferred to the school of higher learning. Education there continued until seventeen, after which its pupils mostly became junior officials, except for a minority who showed promise in the arts. These were then absorbed into a special school which, up to that age, was exclusively reserved for the children of the
Seven Families; and only original students at this Mandarin school were later sent abroad to complete their education at American or European Universities.

Gregory smiled to himself as he thought how scathing the comments of the Socialists of the Western World, who championed equality for all whatever the cost, would be on such a social system. Clearly it was based on the archaic conception of a priviliged aristocracy, which still denied opportunities for intellectual development to women and reserved to itself both the best jobs and all functions of government.

Since the Emperor appeared to be little more than a figurehead it was virtually an oligarchy; although unlike the ancient ones of evil reputation, in which a few rich men ground the faces of the poor, here an Emperor was supported by them and they alone paid any taxes. That, he realised, was made possible only by the fine revenue derived from the faking of antiques, but it said much for the good sense and high-mindedness of the Mandarins that they devoted these profits to the welfare of the people instead of piling up further riches for themselves. There was, too, equal opportunity for all boys to acquire a higher education, if they showed themselves worthy of it, and they could aspire to occupy the highest positions in the State, with the one exception of a seat on its governing Council.

When he asked Ho-Ping if the system really worked, or if at times there had not been agitations by the people for a share in the government, the doctor assured him that there had never been anything of the kind. The prohibition of wireless and the literature of the outer world, except to the members of the Seven Families, ensured the exclusion of ideas which might lead to discontent and as far as the women were concerned he felt certain that, with few exceptions, they were far happier living protected lives in their homes than they could possibly have been if reared to work in the factories or to compete with men for specialised jobs. He added that as, until the advent of revolutionary
doctrines, the old civilisation of China had remained fundamentally unchanged for several thousand years, and that this was in all essentials a continuation of it—provided the secrets of the island could be kept—he saw no reason why it should suffer disruption in any foreseeable future.