“There was once, in a city of the state of Lu,” Han Im began,” a man whose wife had, against his will, entered into a compact with the moon-spirits, so that she was unable to cook for him or to perform any of her household duties. Finding this state of affairs intolerable, he sent her back to her father’s family with a letter to explain the matter, for it seemed more fitting to him that her parents should have the necessity of breaking this compact of hers—a compact which must in some measure have been clue to a lack of proper parental upbringing—than that he, her husband, should be compelled both to endure the indigestion caused by her cooking and to undertake the no doubt lengthy process of re-education and exorcism.”
“I have met cases like that in my medical experience,” Wang Wei put in. “They are usually incurable.”
Han Im continued: “Yes. Well, when he had got rid of his wife and put up the statutory notice to that effect upon his main house-door, Tseng began to look round for a housekeeper. He felt, reasonably enough, that he would prefer not to commit himself to any permanent arrangement after the so obvious failure of his marriage, of which there had been no issue. With a housekeeper who may be dismissed at any time, a man has the advantage of the method of trial and error. After a week’s search and enquiry amongst his friends and acquaintances, he was told of a woman who seemed in every way suitable. She, too, had been driven to independence by the strange conduct of her own partner, who had excited the interest of the neighbours by stripping his wife naked at the village well and painting the Buddhist symbol of the
Liu Shen-hsu observed: “There is much of this religious symbolism even nowadays, when we should imagine that the superstitions of earlier dynasties would have been swept away by better education.”
They had finished the jellied soup, and the main dish of shredded duck, rice, peppers and mushrooms was brought in.
Han Im continued: “The man Tseng engaged this woman and settled down to a quiet life, prepared to try her in all ways. He found almost immediately that a housekeeper is more expensive than a wife, since it is needful to provide her with both salary and housekeeping money, but she seemed a good cook in ail respects save one, and that difficulty (for she proved incapable of boiling beans to the right degree of edibility) was overcome by hiring a girl who possessed some experience in the matter. The housekeeper soon found that the girl (whose name, if it matters, was Dawn Gate) could cook more than beans, and rapidly handed over to her all culinary duties. This girl’s pay, though small, had also to come from the not-too-capacious sleeves of the man Tseng. Nevertheless he felt that the absence of indigestion made up for much of the expense.
“One day he sent for the housekeeper, and when she had stood before him long enough for him to muster his thoughts, he addressed her thus: ‘When I engaged you, it was understood that, in return for your salary, you should undertake all the household duties. I do not object greatly to the hiring of the girl Dawn Gate, for certainly she can cook well, and she is not expensive, as girls go. But today I was told in the market place that you are seeking to hire another girl to do the sewing and mending. If this goes on, you will soon have as many as ten girls to do your work, and this was not my intention when I engaged you. What have you to say to this?’