Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
CHAPTER I.
The Nations and a Man.


As all the world knows, the Children $
Ball of the Lady, Mayoress takes place year
ly on the night of Twelfth Day. 9Th jan
uary. In the year '9s the function was even
more successful than usual, owing to Sir
Henry Burdett's fine idea that the children
should be photographed in support of the
Prince of Wales hospital fund. The little
Waiter Ralefghs, Amy Robsarts, focked in
throngs to the photographers studio adjoin-
Ing the grand salon Of the Mansion House;
while all that space outside between the
Mansion house, the bank, and the stock ex-
change was mere mass of waiting, arriv-
ing and departing vehicles.
If anything tended to take a little of their
exuberance from this and other New Year
jubilations, it was certain cloudiness in
the political sky; nothing very terrifying;
yet something SO real, that nearly every one
felt 1t with disquiet: An Irish member.
to be sunset in the east" Men strolled
Into their clubs, and, with or without a
yawn, said: 'Is there going to be row,
then?" Some one might answer: Not a
bit of 1t; It'll pass off presently, you'll see"
But another wo4id be sure to add: Things
are looking black enough, all the same"
1t was just as when, on clear day at
sea, low and jagged edges of disconnected
clouds appear inkily on the horizon-edge,
and no one is quite certain whether or not
they will meet, and whelm the sky, and sink
the ship
But the horizon had hardly darkened,
when again, it cleared The principal cause
of fear had been what had looked uncom-
monty like conspiracy Of the three great
continental powers to Gust England from
predominance in the east. First, there was
the seizure of Kiao-Ohau, the bombastic
farewells of the German royal brothers;
then Immediately, the aggressive attitude of
Russia at Port Arthur; then Immediately
the rumor that France had seized Hainan,
w inn tn, nm a nd
had ships in Hollow harbor.
All this had the look of concert; for
within the last few years it had got to be
more and more recognized by the British
public that centuries of neighborhood had
fostered among the continental nations a
certain spirit of kinship, in which the
island kingdom was no sharer.
In the course of years the Straits of Dover
had widened into an ocean. Europe had
receded from Britain and Britain, in her
pride. had drawn back from Europe From
the curl of the mustache, to the color and
cut of the evening dress, to the manner in
which women held up their skirts, there
was similarity between French and German,
between German and Russian and Austrian,
and dissimilarity between all these and
English.
1t is true that the Russian hated the Ger
man, and the German the Russian and the
French; but their hatred was the hatred of
brothers, always ready to combine against
the outsider. This had been begun to be
suspected, then recognized by the British
nation. Alone and friendless must England
tread the wlne-press of modern history,
solitary In her majesty; and If ever an at
tempt were made to stop her stately prog
ress, she was prepared to find that her foe
was the rest of Europe. ae
But very soon after the unrest had arisen,
1t began to subside. France denied the an
nexatiOn of Hainan; the semi-offic.al Nord-
deutsche Ailgemeine Zeitung, inspired by
Wilhelm, painted Germany as the patron Of
commerce, with an amiable weakness for
theatrical displays; Russia was defeated in
the ma tier of the removal of Mr. McLeavy
Brown and seemed sufficiently limp after
it: while spirits were raised by the prob
able guarantee of a Chinese loan by the
British government.
But meanwhile, at the children'S ball at
the Mansion House, events were working
in quite different direction from that of
peaceful settlement
Ada Seward was the presiding deity in the
nursery of Mrs. Pattison of FulhaGn. ON
the night of the 9th, DR.. and Mrs. Pattison
had to be present at ball In the west end,
and Ada on that night was busy; for 1t was
necessary for her, first of all. to convey
Master Johnnie Pattison, costumed as
Francis I, to the Mansion House; and then
to hurry homeward again to take Miss
Nellie Pattison to a children's evening with
charades in South Kensington.
The fact that 1t was wet when she reached
the Mansion House may have had some
thing to do with her troubles The landing
place was occupied by some other car
riages, and dismounting with her charge,
an umbrella over him, she cried to the
coachman in a hurried manner through the
drizzle:
''Wait till 1 come back"
The man afterwards declared that he I'M
derstood her to say:
go away and come back
At any rate, when Ada again came forth
into the crush to look for the Pattison
brougham, 1t was nowhere to be found.
And now her lips went up in pout of
vexation. '"What on earth is any one to do
now?" she said. She was pressed for time,
and yet al a loss.
The throng of private carriages seemed to
have banished all cabs from the region of
the Mansion House. She looked and saw
none; then into her pocket, and found only
sixpence These two circumstances decided
her against the cab Instead, she ran
few yards lodging among the carriages,
and at the entrance to Poultry, skipped into
a moving bus.
She sat in a corner for five minutes. with
agonized glances out Of the door at the
slowly recedng clocks. Then some one-a
man sitting nearly opposite, whom she had
not Observation-Disclosures her:
why, Miss Ada, is that you?'
"Oh!' she cried, Mr.. Brabant, is that
you? It's a long time since-how are your
well, I'm pretty fair, Miss Ada, as times
go. you know. Hope you are the same"
still In the army?'
oh yes-the Duke of Cambrdges own
you know. You living in London now?"
''Yes-at Fulham."
Here conversation tagged; and In that
minutes interval, Brabant, with a sudden
half-turn to his left, said
Just allow me to introduce you to my
friend here-Miss Seward-Dr. Yen How"
In the light of the bus lamp Ada Seward
saw very small man, dressed in European
clothes, yet man whom she at once took
to be Chinese. With wrinkled grin, he put
out his hand and shook hers.
He was a man of remarkable visage.
When his hat was off one saw that he
was nearly bald, and that his expanse of
brow was majestic There was something
brooding, meditative in the meaning of his
long eyes; and there was brown and dark.
and specially dirty shade in the yellow tan
of his skin.
He was not really Cllinaman--or rather,
he was that, and more. He was the son of
a Japanese father by Chinese woman He
combined these antagonistic races in one
man. In DR.. Yen How was the east.
He was of noble feudal descent, and at
Toxic but for his Chinese blood, would
have been styled count. Not that the adj
mixture OF blood was very visible in his APP
pearance; In China he passed for Chinese,
and in Japan for JAP
If ever man was cosmopolitan, that man
was DIR. Yen How No European could be
more familiar with the ninutiae of western
civilization His degree of doctor he had
obtained at the University of Heidelberg;
TOR years he had practised as a specialist