Uncle Tao breathed hard and rolled his head. “Yet it is I who decide what persons are to live in our village! This Liu Chen — he is not a Liang and I can say easily enough that he must not stay.”
Now James saw that for Mary’s sake he must coax Uncle Tao. So he leaned toward him and he said warmly, “Any man who has power over others can work evil or good and so can you. We trust your goodness.”
This set Uncle Tao back. His mouth hung open and he did not know how to reply. What could he say now that would not shame him? He wished that he might forget how he ought to act and act only as he felt, and in this dilemma he could not speak.
In the silence James went on. “I myself think that Mary has chosen well. Liu Chen likes you and he likes our village. Moreover, he is very useful to me in the clinic. Some day, with your permission, I shall make a hospital out of our clinic, and ours will be the first village in this whole region to have a hospital. This will bring honor to you and to the whole Liang family. People will come here from a long distance away and our inn will prosper and our few shops will grow into many and there will be markets for our men on the land,” All this James said in his smooth gentle voice and Uncle Tao could not speak against it. In some way of his own James had made Mary’s marriage a part of good that might come about and so Uncle Tao still kept silent. James went on. “I have more news. My mother is coming very soon.”
Here was something that Uncle Tao could oppose and he sat up. “Your mother should not come without your father,” he exclaimed. “I suppose that man full of ink has forgotten his ancestors! He has breathed in foreign winds and drunk Western waters. What do I care? But they all depend on me still. What would they do without old Uncle Tao to keep the tenants in their places and to collect a little money for them and hold the house together?” He sank back again and closed his eyes.
“What indeed!” James agreed. “My mother has often said that.”
Uncle Tao refused to be placated. “She had a loud voice as a girl. What has there been in these years in a foreign country that could improve her?”
James smiled and rose to his feet. “You will see,” he said, and thanking Uncle Tao he went away. To Chen and Mary he only said that Uncle Tao did not oppose anything, and Mary and Chen were both cheered.
“You need not laugh,” James told them. “Uncle Tao could if he liked put us all out of the village.”
But they did not believe him. In these days nothing could make them afraid or sorrowful, and they laughed at everything.
“There are many other villages,” Chen said.
Mrs. Liang looked about her in some anxiety. She had combed her hair but she had not tried to change her wrinkled garments. She was glad therefore when she saw James and Mary and not her new son-in-law. They saw her at the same moment and at once they were a knot of three, their arms about each other.
“Oh Ma, thank you for coming,” Mary cried.
James took her bags and bundles and led the way to the cart which he had hired in the city. It was clean and he had folded a new quilt over the bottom. He helped his mother to get in.
“Ma, it has no springs,” he reminded her.
“Eh, you need not tell me anything from now on,” she said in a lively voice. She was feeling much better already. This was the air of home and she breathed it in deeply. “Such good smell!” she cried. “I am smelling hot sweet potatoes—”
So it was. A vendor had come near with his small stove and he was taking out roasted sweet potatoes and laying them on the tray he carried on the other end of his pole. Mrs. Liang fumbled for her purse.
“Let me, Ma,” James said hastily and putting paper bills on the tray he counted four potatoes. Mrs. Liang shrieked. “James, you have made a mistake — so much money!”
“No, he hasn’t, Ma,” Mary said. “Money is worth nothing now, unless it is from America.”
At this Mrs. Liang looked mysteriously cheerful. She fumbled inside her garments somewhere, gave a wrench or two at her waist, and brought out a small oilcloth package. Then she looked up and met the interested eyes of the mule carter and the vendor and she pursed her lips.
“We better get going,” she said in a loud voice and in English. “I keep something to show you.” She put the thin package into her bosom, made clicking noises to the carter and James jumped in after Mary and they were off. Mrs. Liang sat between them and she put her hand on the arm of each. The country road was cobbled and the cart bounced up and down, but she did not mind this. She continued in English. “What I have in this pack is something your pa also doesn’t know. Why? Because I don’t tell him. Your pa is good but too liking to keep his money for himself. So I take small squeeze for myself!” She laughed gaily and Mary and James smiled, looking at one another over her head.
“It’s delicious to have Ma,” Mary said.
“How will we ever let you go again, Ma?” James asked. Now that his mother was here he felt warmed and more confident. Nothing was strange to her. She would be able to help him in the ancestral village, with Uncle Tao, with the hospital, with everybody. He would tell her everything.
Mrs. Liang looked from one face to the other and continued in triumph. “When I come to you, children, I bring my money with me. Your pa thinking nothing and giving me only a little for myself and for you!”
The bumping cart was shaking laughter out of her in gasps.
“Oh Ma!” Mary said fondly. “I am so glad Chen is going to see you.” She gave her mother’s hand a squeeze, and then chanced to look at it. “Why, Ma, how dirty you are,” she exclaimed.
Mrs. Liang was not embarrassed. “Never mind — it is not here like America,” she said comfortably. “Now tell me, Mary, how is this Chen looking and all that?”
They were still talking in English because the carter sat on the edge of the vehicle, within a few inches of them. The mule took its own gait while the carter stared at them with bright and curious eyes. He was young and ragged and bold.
“James, you tell,” Mary said with sudden shyness.
“Well, Mother,” James said, “he is a little taller than I am, much bigger in the bones, a square head, a big nose—”
“Not too big!” Mary put in.
“Always making jokes, doesn’t like the city, doesn’t like to dress up, doesn’t like scholars—”
“Sounds so nice,” Mrs. Liang said. “Who is go-between?”
“I was, Ma,” James said.
“And Uncle Tao?” Mrs. Liang asked shrewdly.
“Uncle Tao is willing.”
“When is wedding?”
Mary looked shy again. “It depends on you, Ma, and when you have to go back to Pa.”
“Six weeks only,” Mrs. Liang said.
“Oh Ma!” Their voices rose in chorus. “We thought it would be six months at least,” Mary cried.
Mrs. Liang looked grave. She glanced at the carter and lowered her voice and still speaking English she explained her anxieties. “Your pa is too valuable,” she ended. “I cannot just to leave him loose. Violet Sung is like some hungry tiger outside door of apartment.”
“Oh Ma,” Mary murmured while James kept silence.
“Just like Louise,” Mrs. Liang retorted. “Oh Ma — she says, oh Ma, you are screaming — such talking all the time! But I tell you I am older. Just now, Mary, you are engaging and you think men are too perfect.”
“Only Chen,” James said, smiling.
“Maybe just now Chen is too perfect,” Mrs. Liang conceded. “But here is China and men have no such good chance as in America where ladies are waiting everywhere with open bust and leg. I tell you, men cannot continue perfect in such case. You mustn’t think I am blaming your pa too much. No! I blame elsewhere — Violet Sung and whole America!”