Short Stories
Subdued chucklings and laughter from the window audi-
ence applauded her point.
"You buried two husbands yourself, revered mother," Ah
Kim was stung to retort.
"I had the good taste not to marry a third. Besides, my two
husbands died honourably in their beds. They were not kicked
by horses nor drowned at sea. What business is it of our
neighbours that you should inform them I have had two hus-
bands, or ten, or none? You have made a scandal of me, before
all our neighbours, and for that I shall now give you a real
beating."
Ah Kim endured the staccato rain of blows, and said when
his mother paused, breathless and weary:
"Always have I insisted and pleaded, honourable mother,
that you beat me in the house, with the windows and doors
closed tight, and not in the open street or the garden open be-
hind the house.
"You have called this unthinkable Li Faa the Silvery Moon
Blossom," Mrs. Tai Fu rejoined, quite illogically and feminine-
ly, but with utmost success in so far as she deflected her son
from continuance of the thrust he had so swiftly driven home.
"Mrs. Chang Lucy told you," he charged.
"I was told over the telephone," his mother evaded. "I do not
know all voices that speak to me over that contrivance of all the
devils."
Strangely, Ah Kim made no effort to run away from his
mother, which he could easily have done. She, on the other
hand, found fresh cause for more stick blows.
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