The Wilmington daily Republican., 1901-12-30
lTHH6 cHES' VISION
n MIA ". rIsAsr1n.

years, but she never stepped DelOre MIN
Or seemed to notice him in the least. His
people all died and left him nothing but
the memory Of honorable lives, and poor
Hud, horribly lonely, mayried girl he
knew--after ascertaining that she had no
objection to making her own gowns and
! was willing to temper the grocery bills to
suit bookkeeper's salary.
But in spite of all the eduilness with which
he was surrounded, and the fact that he
toiled all day and walked home through
filthy strestss TO- third fat and Q plain
wife, Hud coatu not,cgme down to the &C.
Qualities. Or, to put It more fairly, he re7
fused TO notice the unnteiesting actuali
ties and confined himself to the enjoyment
Of such things in life as suited him. As,
for example, the east.
Hud kept books for River street i'm.
porting house, and it was his privilege to
handle Invoices Of tea from China and cof-
fee and spices from Java and Mandalay.
1t was, without doubt, the purest imagina.
tion, but it seemed to Hud that the very
invoices Of these things had an aromatic
scent about them, and it was his chief in
dulgence- to leave his work q minute be.
fore the noon hour and 60 to the shipping
\ room, where the curious cases OF redolent
wares were opened
At first when he tried to tell his wife,
, she laughed. But she loved Hud--poor
Hud who had never had anything that he
wanted-and when she looked in his
dreamy, ox-like eyes, she made up her
mind to try TO understand what he was
talking about. Very plain women are
| sometimes unselfish like that.
1t was she who bought him an old copy
Of the astonishing travels Of Marco Polo,
and she got the chronicles Of Sir John
Maundevillesdn IF the public library and
read aloud tt,fhid evenings. She got some
joss sticIs, IN, NAd burned them in tiny
jade bowh S,Ahd after that. both of the
trmkets and Mrs. Beach begged the
greenish plaited straw wrappings that
came about the tea box@s, and made a
dalo OF them around her dining room,
neatly paneling the whole. After that the
pungent perfume of the dried tea leaves
were forever in that room, and made it
peculiar. Moreover, she struck tiny gong
when meals wery ready, and the gong had
q haunting oriental sound.
SO into the lives of Hudson Irvington
Beach and his plain little wife began to
come the color Of the mysterious east"
and they dreamed of "Far Cathay' and
talked about ''the Ind" and were absurdly
hackneyed- though they didn't know it
and they envied the people who could
cross the western seas, and sail into the
toy country of JAPAN or see the vast,
thronging rivers of China, and hear the
linkling of the temple bells.
II used to think it was very silly to talk
shout the incarnation Of the soul, Mrs.
Beech said to Hudson, but now | feel
quite sure that I used to walk through
bazsr and talk with ivory-faced old men
in turbans, and that used to buy curious,
delightful things. 1t cannot be that all
know about marketing is going down on
Clark street 10 the butchers. | hate the
butchers, anyway. Why cant we eat rice
and sugared cherpies and beautiful deli.
cate things like that
liud managed TO get some delicious rel
ishes such as Christians encounter when
they go TO Bombay. and he and Mrs. Beach
used them with scrupulOus irugality. On
Christmas he made her present of su.
CARED cherries and ginger and small, pre-.
cious packages of tea.
They knew but few persons on this
tecmng globe and wrote to fewer still,
though they were people vino would dear.
ly have loved an interesting correspond
ence, and chief of all their epistolatory de-
lights was the letter that came now and
then from Hong Kong from a correspondent
OF the River street house. l1ud, to tell
the truth. had rather thrust his personal.
iIy apon this man, and by careful coaxine,
the business correspondence had grown
into friendly interchange OF personal 4et-
ters.
1T seems curious to me at times" said
Ilud one day, rubbing the bald spot on his
head, That in all my lie | am never to
get a smell Of the bazar-the garlic and
the incense and the perfumes and the dirt
How mi,erably dull our streets are, Mary.
What would You think il you saw people
in white linen and red and blue and yellow
and gold and fawn coors? Mary, how
would YOU like Cashmere shawl: Or
camel hair robe? En-" Then they both
laughed like children who have secret
and Mary, getting up, lit one of the little
joss sticks in the Jade bowl
II was only last winter that the Beaches
began TO get tired of visions Perhaps they
realized that youth was really gone Any
way they knew beyond all peradventure
that they were poor; that work was con
Stanl and poorly lcnunrrated and that for
all of the cry OF their souls for the land be-
yond Suez, they were likely TO live and die
in that neighborhood of fiat buildings,
looking out on endless wire clothes lines
and fire escapes. They grew depressed.
They We're almost ll-naturcd with each
other. They ceased to take pleasure in the
Tcdolent dado.
But just as the dirty Chicago winter was
settling down upon them in a most dis.
heartcning way, and the furniture of the
fiat was looking its mtanest, and Mary
was most conscious of the outof-date
character Of her thrce-yearod jacket Hud
came home one night with white face.
"lIud," cried Mary, when she saw him,
you're discharged
MARY shouted Hud throwing his arms
about her, "you lie" and he kissed hef
square on the MOUTH
ITS the Ind" half sobbed Hud, II
tell you, Mary, it's the Ind that has upset
me! Pm to 60 as agent for our house to
Hong Kong! 1t has come true"
'1Iong- Kong isn't the Ind, said Mary, al
most Grossly. She was surprised that she
had to be cross.
isn't it, dear? Oh, yes it is. It's the
east, anyhow! Mary, ] can smell it--I can
see it--I can hear it! What taryland.
The sky, the flowers, the people, the color,
the noise-they are all different! We shall
cross the continent and cross the sea and
see the islands, and then we shall come
to the old cities and live in them!"
He rubbed his bald head fiercely with
his handkerchief while she trembling with
her amazement, brewed him a cup of the