The afternoon was now drawing to a close. A blue haze crept over the distant landscape and smoothed out all ugliness, and made the scene soft and pleasing, and even the incessant cries of the boatmen sounded less shrill. Tuen got up and walked about on the cramped deck, for she was weary with long sitting, but she was blind and deaf to all that went on. Wang was trying to engage Szu in conversation, but he only pulled his bamboo cap farther over his staring eyes, and did not answer, and finally, she gave up in despair and went within. After a while, Tuen came back and, squatting down on a silken cushion beside Szu, said:
"Could a woman have done what that Woo How did?"
He removed the pipe from his mouth, and turned his face toward her.
"The sages have told you so," he replied, shortly.
"I know that," she said, impatiently, "but what I mean is, could it ever happen again?"
He screwed up his mouth, and repressed a smile.
"As long as women are born it could happen, I suppose, and there is as yet no dearth of females."
"You are laughing at me!" she cried, flushing angrily. "I asked you a civil question. Why should you make sport of me?"
Now he smiled, openly, at her evident vexation, but he said, gravely:
"If you are born great, you will be great, no matter if you be man or woman, no matter when you live or where, but the great ones of earth are few and far between. Some who were not born great, have, by hard work and much patience, attained to it. But a woman is usually a stupid thing, and her head is much too light for climbing."
"If she were very wise, could she have power, even in the Forbidden City?" Tuen persisted.
"If she were very wise, she would have power, it makes no difference where she lived. Even on a desert island she would have power over the wild beasts, for knowledge is power the world over. It is because females do not possess it that they are weak and of little repute. When they become wise they will rule the earth, for a man is but clay in the hands of a skilful woman. She pats him into whatever shape she wants him."
"I would like to be wise and great," Tuen said, with a sigh.
For several days after she had listened to the story of Woo How, Tuen maintained an unwonted gravity, and was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she paid but little attention to anything around her. "The poor child is homesick," Wang muttered, as she watched her, but the girl gave no indication of the cause of her new mood. Perhaps she could not if she had tried. Their progress along the Yang-tse-Kiang was slow, and she had much time for meditation. There was a certain sameness about the scenery, a monotony about the river-life, and she could almost fancy that it was the same people, passing and repassing every day. Sometimes she would hear a boatman singing some familiar air that would carry her back all the many long miles that separated her from that other life, that other Tuen, who was now almost a stranger to her, and she would unconsciously sigh, but she wept no more. The mystic future, heretofore a blank, seemed now full of untold possibilities, and her active mind drew many alluring pictures of what it might be. Unknown to herself, she was merging from a dreaming girl to a clear-headed, determined woman, a woman of a strong personality, whose influence would be felt in the world. After all, it is some mere chance that holds a mirror before us and shows us what we are and what we might be, and to Tuen this vision had come before it was too late. From this time she would press forward with that unfailing courage and persistence whose reward is success. The most diverting sight to her was the fisherman with his cormorants, and these she never tired of watching. With many a hoarse squawk, the well-trained birds would dive for their prey, while their masters shouted cheeringly at them, and happy the bird that came up with a fish in his mouth. He was pulled into the boat, the iron ring that had prevented him from feasting upon his prey was removed from his neck, and a generous handful of bean-curd rewarded his industry. It was amusing to Tuen to see the excited interest these black-winged birds betrayed in their own performance, and with what alacrity they went about their task.