Loong Tan’s Wife

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 36

Loong Tan’s Wife

BY

P. L. CONIGRAVE

Among the yellow-skmned, slantfeyed popultiion of Pennyflelds, it was generally agreed that Loong Tan’s wife had not given him a fair deal.

Loong was a merchant. His shop had a long low front window filled with blue and white ginger Jars, plates of lychee nuts, brass trays and pagodas, melancholy Buddhas, red, green and yellow fans, touched with gold, and other things of many shapes and colours. Inside the shop there was a penetrating scent of dried fish, dried pork, tea, incense, cumquats, strange herbs, and a host of other commodities, many of which lay in small square drawers, inscribed with Chinese characters, and placed row upon row along two of the walls. It was a shop similar to several other shops in the quarter. Loong had lived in Pennyflelds for many years. He had left China as a boy and had spent a long time at sea travelling m sail and steam to Singapore, Bombay, Calcutta, Sydney and San Francisco, and to many less known but more adventurous places. Eventually he had tired of the sea, and had settled down in Limehouse Causeway. Hearing that Sun Kai wanted to go back to China, he had bought his business, crossed the West India Dock Road, and taken possession of his premises. Owing largely to his lack of friendliness, Loong was a lonely man. He was of a somewhat morose temperament, and the years he had spent at sea had engendered in him a tendency to indulge in long, silent reflection. Wearing a black silk, high-collared jacket, wide trousers, and cloth slippers, he would often sit behind the counter of his shop, seemingly for hours, puffing smoke from a long metal pipe which he lighted frequently with a slender glowing taper. Sometimes he would leave the shop and go into a small room behind it, where he would stay puffing from his pipe or amusing himself throwing red and white dice. Occasionally a few of the older inhabitants of the quarter visited him at night and gambled or smoked opium with him. As Loong grew older he began to feel his loneliness, and he decided that he would get himself a wife from among the white women in the quarter.

Not long after making this decision Loong married Trixie. Trixie had a house in Knebsworth Street, and made good money out of the sailors who worked on the la -ge steamers which were continually entering, and leaving the docks* She was a fairly regular visitor to Loong’s shop, at which she bought tea, nuts, fish, tinned foods, and other requirements. She was a dark, handsome woman, of about thirty, with a rather hard red mouth, and a loud boisterous laugh. It

was the opinion of all who knew her that she could take care of herself When Loong asked Trixie to marry him she told him to “wake up and not try to be funny.” Why should she marry a Chow, of all persons? She had all the money she needed, and she did as she liked. There was no reason why she should tie herself uji to Loong and his strange-smelling shop. But considering the matter further she wondered whether it might not be wise to accept Loong’s proposal. She was not growing younger, and she would not always be attractive. What would happen to her then? She made good money, but she spent it quickly. She had never been able to save. It might be good business to marry Loong, and to be secure for the remainder of her lifetime. Loong was said to have a. large banking account, and girls she had known who had married Chinese had all been treated well. A month after Loong had spoken to her on the subject she married him. That was three years ago. They got on well for a time, but soon Trixie began to feel that married life was irksome. Loong’s long, contemplative silences irritated her, and the short temper he displayed now and then caused friction between them. Trixie missed the rowdy companions of her former days, who had amused her with their coarse, lewd jests and the imaginative tales of their wanderings. She also missed her friends among the other girls in the quarter. Occasionally some of the girls visited her at the shop, but Loong was so unsociable while they were there, and grumbled so much after they had left, that she asked them not to come again. Then Loong began to complain that she went out too often. She was always out, he said, and left him too much alone. Notwithstanding his complaints he provided her generously with money, and she had ample supplies of hats and clothing- and some highly priced rings and other jewellery. At last Trixie rebelled against Loong’s restrictions. She told him that she was not a prisoner, and that he could not keep her locked up in a cage. “I may be a bit of a bird," she said, “but don’t you ferget, I’ got a pair o’ wings.” Loong expostulated, but she flew into a rage, and ramming a hat down on to her black head, she hastened out into the street.

That night, for the first time since her marriage, she stayed out late. Afterward she went out nearly every night, and it began to be murmured in the Causeway and in Pennyflelds that Loong was not being treated squarely. Trixie was frequently seen in the company of sailors, and she had been to several very lively parties in an upstairs room at the Rainbow's End.

Loong did not appear to worry much about what she did when she was away from him. If he suspected her conduct, he never mentioned his suspicions. The whole burden of his complaint was that she left him alone too much.

The cause of their having a really violent quarrel was Trixie’s daring in bringing sailors to the shop. Loong had objected to the visits of her girl friends. When she began to bring seamen home, his smouldering indignation "burst into almost uncontrolled fury. One of the seamen was drunk, but he was not drunk enough to have lost his sense of superiority to a Chinese shopkeeper. When Loong protested against his visit, he replied with a obscene oath, and told him that if he did not stop jabbering he would kick his shop to pieces. Trixie added a few highly expressive remarks, and the argument, developed so fiercely that a small crowd gathered round the door of Loong’s shop. It was dispersed by a constable who was patrolling the area. This visit was followed by the visits of other seamen. Trixie had determined that she would annoy Loong as much as possible. Eventually Loong ceased his protests, and decided to use other tactics. “I. like you much, Tlixie,” he said; “You cum ’way w-i’ me. We go nuller place. You no go ulier man. We go Austalia, Amelica—some ulier place. You be good woman.” “Not on yer life,” replied Trixie. “We stay ’ere. I did not marry yuh ter go travellin’ roun’ th’ world. We stay ’ere, yuh an’ me—both uv us. See that, an’ don’t ferget it.” Loong gave up the battle. He was growing older, and he did not really want to move from Pennyflelds. He had done enough wandering, and only wanted to be comfortable and contented. He would try to alter Trixie’s ways by giving her more money and being a little more cheerful to her. Then came into his life Trixie’s friend Charlie, a huge, broad-shoul-dered man with iron-grey hair, low forehead ’and eyes closely set together beneath thick brows. His Bands were coarse and knotted, and he walked with a long, swinging stride of abundant self-confidence. Charlie was a bully, and all his companions on the Columbia Queen knew it. The Columbia Queen had been in port for a fortnight, and in that time Trixie and Charlie had become very friendly. She had been out with him at nights, and several times, much to Loong’s disgust, she had brought him home.

One night when she was out with Charlie some of Loong’s acquaintances who had not seen him for a long time called to play dice with him, and as the hours passed and Trixie did not return they remarked upon it, and told Loong that he was stupid-to allow her to have all her own way. They warned him that his name was becoming a byword in the quarter as the man who was bossed about by his wife.

This touched Loong’s pride, and he decided that he would end the unsatisfactory state of affairs. After

his friends had left he waited up for Trixie, and when she came in alone, having said good-night to Charlie, at the front door, he upbraided her for her neglect of him and forbade her to continue in the way she had been gofag. Trixife abused him with angry voice, and replied that she would do as she pleased.

To show her defiance of Loong she went out next afternoon and brought Charlie back to tea. Neither she nor Charlie was quite sober when they arrived. Loong did not -want to eat with them, but they both bullied him into sitting down at the table. He remained silent throughout the meal, but a sullen anger was rising within him. Trixie and Charlie kept up an incessant conversation and exchange of laughter. The meal having ended, Trixie informed Loong that she and Charlie were going to a party round at Barney Goldberg’s, and that she would not be home until early morning. Loong became frantically voluble, and gesticulating wildly shouted at her that she was not to go. “You stay ’ome,” he said. “You bad woman. You wicked woman. Not go out this man. I tell p’leesman, get ’im put out back ship.” “Yer would, would yer?” asked Charlie. “Yer yeller skinned dog. A man ort ter knock yer.” He struck Loong full in the face. With a scowl of anger Loong rubbed his face and staggered backward. “That’s right, Charlie. Give ’im a bit more,” cried Trixie, at the same time rushing forward and boxing Loong across the left ear. Loong shot a glance of deep hatred at Ti-ixle. “Cluel woman. You, you .” Words failed him to express his anger and contempt. “Yuh keep quiet and go up to bed,” she said. “We’re goin’ out, and we don’ wan’ yuh ’angin’ roun’ w’en we git hack, do we, Charlie?” “No, we don’,” answered Charlie. “We wan’ a bit o’ time to ourselves.” Trixie gave another loud, boisterous laugh, and added, “A’ caws we do. Come on, Charlie.” She put on her hat and, a little less sober by reason of the excitement of the argument with Loong, they walked arm in arm. from the small room out through the shop. In the small back room Loong sat waiting, brooding over his injustice. His philosophic contemplativeness had left him, a.nd he was filled with an overwhelming desire to make things even with the two who had wronged him. For hours he had sat thinking over his grievances. He had always treated Trixie well, and he could not see why she had any cause for dissatisfaction. She had wanted to do as she had liked, and he had let her do it, and had given her money so that she could enjoy herself. His friends had called him “Big fool,” and so he was, a big fool. But he had been a fool long enough. Trixie would be the fool now. He opened the drawer of the table and fingered the dull blue-grey Colt which he had obtained from upstairs. And so would that- big bully, Charlie —that white pig, who had taken charge of his home, called him cruel names, and hit him, encouraging Trixie to hit him also. Again he fingered the Colt caressingly before heplacing it in the drawer. He glanced at the clock on the shelf. It was 20 minutes past two. Surely they would be home soon. * * * Outside through the open door of the shop Loong heard footsteps, and a man and woman talking. He opened the drawer of the table and turned slightly, facing the entrance to the room. He would fire as they entered. He would shoot them both. It would only be a second. The police Could take him then. Probably they would hang him. But he had to get even. The footsteps sounded In the shop and reached the entrance to the room. Loong heard the woman whisper. He put his hand in the drawer and took hold of the pistol. Into the room walked Police-Ser-geant Alcock. “I’ve got bad news for you, Loong,” h 9 said. “Your wife’s dead. She was stabbed by a sailor. This woman knows all about it, and I’m taking her along with me.” “It was a big cove called Charlie,” explained the woman. “I seen ’im do it. They w’s arguin’ about somethint, an’ ’e ups an’ knifes ’er.” “Yes, and we’ve got him locked up,” added Alcock. “It looks as if he’s a goner.”

Across Loong’s face spread a smile of marvellous contentment. He let go the pistol and softly closed the drawer.