A cold feeling of horror gripped me, and for a second I knew what people meant when they said they were paralyzed by fear, for if I had tried to move I should for a few seconds have been unable to. The light shed by the lanterns was sparse but that was a face looking at me out of the gloom. As the use of my limbs came back to me my first impulse was to run in the opposite direction. The figure had not moved. It appeared to be just standing there. I forced myself to take a step forward. Still it remained motionless. As I advanced it had taken on shape and I could see now that it was a statue of life-size proportions.

A figure of wood and stone. Nothing more. How could I have been so foolish? Because this house had lived in my imagination for so long I had built fantasies about it and now that I saw it, I had the feeling that it was even more mysterious, more strange, more menacing perhaps than I had imagined it.

I went close to the figure. It was Kuan Yin—the benevolent goddess. This one looked slightly less kindly than others I had seen. Her eyes seemed to look straight into mine… veiled eyes. I could almost imagine she was telling me to go away which was what a benevolent goddess would do to someone who was in danger.

In danger! Why should that have come into my mind? I thought of my son alone in his room while I was away.

That was absurd. I should be in the house.

I ran back to my room. Quietly I opened the door. I looked into Jason’s room. He was lying on his back, his eyes closed, his fingers gripping the edge of the sheet, a happy smile on his face. His dreams were evidently pleasant. I wanted to pick him up and hug him but I dared not for fear of awakening him. So I tiptoed out of the room, turned my back on the figure of Kuan Yin and found the staircase which I had ascended.

Sylvester had come out into the hall. He stood leaning on his stick watching me descend.

“Oh there you are, Jane,” he said. “Dinner is about to be served.”

He took my arm and leaned rather heavily on me as we went into the dining room. It was dim because the draperies had been drawn across the window and there was only the light from the lantern which hung from the ceiling.

There was something alien about the room, and I was discovering what it was. It was this mingling of East and West. The table and the chairs looked as though they had come out of a French château—so did the marble console table with the gilded legs. It was as though one culture had been overlaid with another.

Sylvester read my thoughts. He had an uncanny way of doing this which often disturbed me. I felt either he had special powers of discernment or I was too easy to read.

“Yes,” he said, as though continuing a conversation, “it’s not in keeping, is it? You’ll find that throughout the house. Western furniture has been brought in for greater comfort. But these rooms on the ground floor are all paneled which makes them more unusual still.”

We took our places at the table.

Immediately a servant brought in bowls of soup; the soup was appetizing and I must have been more hungry than I thought. We ate in silence while the servants padded in and out. The soup was followed by salted meat and fish served with rice and tea. There was also some kind of drink which was not unlike whisky and which Sylvester told me was made with rice.

The meal was something of a ceremony. I felt the servants were watching me intently and I was sure Sylvester, like myself, was relieved when it was over. We retired to a small room which was furnished like a study. It was dimly lighted by the lantern which hung from the ceiling.

“So, Jane,” said Sylvester, “we are here.”

“It’s hard to believe.”

He had seated himself in a carved chair and I sat on a pouf of embossed leather.

“What do you think of it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Too soon to decide,” he said. “But you’ll be fascinated. Everyone is. They undergo a change when they come into this house. The servants… everyone. Even my imperturbable nephew Adam is not as immune from its influence as he pretends to be.”

“He is a very taciturn young man.”

“Oh, he’s very serious. He’s more like me than any other member of the family. And that he should be Redmond’s son is extraordinary. He certainly doesn’t take after his father. Tobias would have liked to stay to dine with us, but I think this is not the time. Tomorrow we’ll talk business.”

“He must have a lot to tell you.”

“He intimated that. I want you to be present, Jane. I want you to learn as much as you can about the business. You’ll get to understand how things work out here much more than you could in London. We’ll get Tobias to show you over the warehouses down by the harbor. They’re called ‘Go-Downs’ here. You’ve a great deal to see.”

There was an excitement about him. He was delighted not only to be here but to have me with him. That he liked my company I knew but it was more than that even. He wanted me to learn his business; and I knew that he was thinking that one day Jason would control it and that I should be there to help him.

“And the house?” he said. “What do you think of the house?”

I looked over my shoulders for I had the eerie feeling that the house itself was listening.

“I have hardly seen it. It was almost dark when we arrived.”

“It is the strangest house I ever knew,” he said slowly. “There are some who say that it should never have been built.”

“Who says that?”

“The superstitious. It is built on the site of an old temple, you see. And there’s evidence of that. The pagoda was actually part of the temple.”

“What pagoda?”

“You haven’t seen it. It’s in the garden just beyond the outer wall. You’ll see it from your window in the morning. It’s rather fine. It’s built of stone and imbedded in the walls are colored stones which glisten in the sunshine… There are some amethysts and topaz. It’s a wonderful sight. The servants regard it as a holy place. They’re in awe of it.”

“Wasn’t the temple dedicated to Kuan Yin and wasn’t she supposed to be benevolent?”

“Yes, the Goddess of Mercy,” he said. “But even she, so they think, might not be pleased to find a house built where once her temple stood, and that house in the possession of a barbarian! Oh yes, we are all barbarians. They call us Fân-kuei, which means foreign ghost. We’re spirits or devils. Foreign devils they call us.”

“Not very complimentary.”

“I’m sorry to say that it implies a certain respect, for they respect what they fear.”

“Yet one of them gave this house to your grandfather.”

“Perhaps it was not a very suitable gift… but I’m glad he gave it to him. My father loved the place. He used to talk a great deal about it, and he left it to me not only because I was the eldest son but because he knew I had more feeling for the house itself than the others had. You will see for yourself in time, Jane. You feel the spell of the place. Now I think you must be tired for I am.”

He picked up a bell. It rang loudly through the room and Ling Fu appeared.

He did not need to be told that his master wished to be taken to his room.

I went to mine. I was tired yet I was not at ease. I undressed and went to bed, first having looked in at Jason who was sleeping.

I was undoubtedly tired but I could not sleep. I was actually in The House of a Thousand Lanterns. I kept thinking of my first sight of the house, the walls, the courtyards and the golden-colored building with the dragons on either side of the porch, the almost stealthy servants, the quiet of the house, the rugs so many of them depicting the fire breathing dragon, the atmosphere of East and West uneasily mingling. And the lanterns.

I longed for morning. I wanted to see the place in daylight. I wanted to go to the harbor with Sylvester and learn about the business that was conducted there. There was so much that I wanted to know and I was not sure what the discovery would bring.

I dozed and dreamed that I went from my room onto the landing and that the goddess there beckoned me in some strange way without moving at all and I could not stop myself from advancing towards her. When I was close a voice issued from her. “Go home, foreign ghost. There is nothing good for you here. For you do not belong, foreign devil, go away while there is time.”

“I can’t go,” I said. “I can’t. I must stay here…”

Her eyes changed. They were no longer benevolent; I felt myself caught in a cold vise.

“Let me go!” I cried and I was awake… but the nightmare was in the room. My hand was gripped… someone was there.

“Mama, Mama. I’m frightened.” It was Jason’s hand that was gripping me. “You were shouting.”

The relief was great. I drew him into my bed.

He was cold and he clung to me.

“There’s a dragon in my room,” he said.

“It was a nightmare,” I told him.

“He’s not there when I open my eyes. Fire comes out of his mouth.”

I said: “It was a dream.”

“Did you dream about him too?”

“I dreamed about something.”

“Shall I stay with you in case you have another dream?”

“Yes,” I said, “tonight we’ll stay together.”

I felt him relax.

“It was only a dream,” he said, soothing me.

“That’s all, Jason, only a dream.”

In a few minutes he was asleep. I was not long after. The warm body of my child gave me comfort in that strange house.


* * *

In the morning the house had lost much of its sinister aspect. It was fascinating and I wanted to explore it.