The Washington herald., 1917-03-04
TYPES
Ii CHUNG-WIzARD.
By SARA MOORE.

condescended to like. When every one
thought / was going to die he threw
brewed a heather concoction that tasted
as II one were swallowing cinnamon
| sprinkled hAirbursh. and cured my sore
throat In half an hour. And then he
read me lecture on wearing rubbers:-
! all In Chinese. I do not speak the
language, but the way he nourished my
overshoes was an unmistakable orient
alization Of the talk mother used to give
| me on rainy days when had tried to
sneak OF to school without rubbers. %
Benson maintained, that Ii Chung liked
me merely because I was the only girl
in the group who laid no matrimonial
traps for his master. Bat knew was
because he could see beneath the cold
cream Of conventionalisrn, the rouge Of
Bohemianism and the powder Of New
Yorkishness that masked my perfectly
harmless mind.
| knew, too. that the velvet brown eyes
he turned on me were Just as penetrat-
ing when he gazed upon the others.
| There was Racheal. anarchist, slug
gish. shapeIess. slowly fattening into
unloveliness-while she wrote verses
that had the charm and delicacy that
made them seem Ike butterflies on
wing.
There was Browne, Caesar Of litera-
1
was Florence Willis, who seemed to be
Bernhard before she had budded. If
| her sister Nettie and Eelen Lewis had
lived in Victorian times they might
have been water colorists or china
painters. In 1915 there was nothing
for them to do but sesign weird cos
tunes, for which they got fabulous
prices, and talk about CeEanne for rec
reation. Joe Gerton and Fred Warner
reformed the world and sold books.
| Benson wrote them. So did Liala. II
was when I saw Ii Chung watching
Liala that decided be was not criti-
cising our manners. He was penny
weishting our thoughts.
| Liala was our one beauty. 4 success
full novelist, a talented amateur actress,
and the loveliest creature ever born. she
ruled the group Ike queen. She broke
the men-heart and pocketbook. She bor-
rowed our hairpins, wasted our time.
| stole our beauX-end still we adored her.
Not one of US had ever fostered any hat
| red when she had hurt US. But when she
set a snare for Tyler Farweu there were
times when I spent hours planning how
would slip a little poison into her tea.
| Tyler's wife was like an apple blossom.
Liala was an orchid. Tyler was-wel!.
| for a nice. sweet minded. hearty sort OF
| Westerner. Tyler was an awful fool. Per-
| haps II he had been one whit less honest
| himself he might have suspected Liala
and her wiles. But he just kept b!under-
ing on-Setting deeper and deeper. with
out suspicion that he was leaving ruin
and disaster behind In his adoring little
| wife's heart
I never thought OF appealing to Ii
| Chung for help in unsnaring Tyler. Ben
sons accusations that 1t was a conspir-
acy were absolutely
| Well
4
one afternoon, playing with the QUA
board and talking spiritism and charms
| and mysticism 1Iala. the superstitIous
one OF the group, had grown particularly
interested. She had Just made the ac-
! quaintance Of an Indian what-do-you-
! caI-'em. and was quite keen about some
! Of his fads.
Ii was brewing tea in one corner Of the
room. He could not understand a word,
! but could see that he was watching
! Liala intently. He had been watching
her maneuver Tyler into a corner OF the
Deep many cushioned couch on which
she was displaying considerable stocking
and some gracefully training. heavily
scented draperies. I saw him. too, watch
Benson as he strolled to a cabinet and
brought forth an old casket-fairly load
ed with ancient Indian, Egyptian and
| Turkish charms
was making the sandwiches and stood
! close to the chinaman as Benson told the
story Of one queer little carved fgure in
wrought metal casket. Ii Chung
| couldn't understand q word but he must
have heard of the charm before At any
| rate. he put down the tea things and
| folded his hands in his sleeves watching
Liala intently Not quiver of her beau
! tiful face escaped him as she bent for
ward in the candle light Every bit of
ner half mystic. half superstitious nature
q 70
Suddenly Ii stepped forward and ut
tered string OF Chinese gutterals. II
was as II someone had ripped the stlkeu
twilight with a brutally tearing knife,
Benson frowned. then hesitated. The
! Chinaman was motioning toward Ltala.
When he had finished speaking his MAJ
ter's. face was struggling between anus.-
| ment and displeasure.
! LII says that the gracious lady wears a
| charm more potent than any Of this
| Eastern trash I have treasured H.
wants to tell you about it, to avert dis
aster and to free its powers"
Liala sat up and we all pressed for
ward in excitement.
Ii lifted the queer little plaque of gold
and Jade and silver and enamel that
dangled near the woman's knees, swing
ing from her neck by a long, barbara
metal and Jade chain. Benson himself
| looked awestricken as he translated.
Liala's lips parted and after a little she
began to cry.
The story, as Ii gave II, was awfully
4 dramatic and rambling. But stripped Of
its trimmings he swore that the pendant
| was a charm that was all powerful to
make or mar the wearer's life He SAID
that dipped three times in the river Of
oh, ask Benson, he knows all those queer,
Asiatic names-it would give the wearer
her dearest wish, but that unless eacn
possessor so dipped 1t they must be for
ever driven up and down the earth. al
ways wanting what belonged to another.
never finding hearts ease but always
causing ruin in which they could not re-
joice.
Ask him." she said. 'how to get to
that river"
Benson translated the reply hssitatingly.
He said that the charm would work
best near a certain town In China.
And you may imagine why we could
see the pulse of Liala's throat throb
and throb as II it must break through.
For the man she used to be engaged to
Is american consul IN that place.
| OF course, there was no stopping Liala.
Once she took trip to Paris Just be-