Good Earth, The - Pearl S. Buck [6]
"Bring me tea," he said weakly to the boy. Before he could turn it was there and the small boy demanded sharply,
"Where is the penny?"
And Wang Lung, to his horror, found there was nothing to do but to produce from his girdle yet another penny.
"It is robbery," he muttered, unwilling. Then he saw entering the shop his neighbor whom he had invited to the feast, and he put the penny hastily upon the table and drank the tea at a gulp and went out quickly by the side door and was once more upon the street.
"It is to be done," he said to himself desperately, and slowly he turned his way to the great gates.
This time, since it was after high noon, the gates were ajar and the keeper of the gate idled upon the threshold, picking his teeth with a bamboo sliver after his meal. He was a tall fellow with a large mole upon his left cheek, and from the mole hung three long black hairs which had never been cut. When Wang Lung appeared he shouted roughly, thinking from the basket that he had come to sell something.
"Now then, what?"
With great difficulty Wang Lung replied,
"I am Wang Lung, the farmer."
"Well, and Wang Lung, the farmer, what?" retorted the gateman, who was polite to none except the rich friends of his master and mistress.
"I am come---I am come---" faltered Wang Lung.
"That I see," said the gateman with elaborate patience, twisting the long hairs of his mole.
"There is a woman," said Wang Lung, his voice sinking helplessly to a whisper. In the sunshine his face was wet.
The gateman gave a great laugh.
"So you are he!" he roared. "I was told to expect a bridegroom today. But I did not recognize you with a basket on your arm."
"It is only a few meats," said Wang Lung apologetically, waiting for the gateman to lead him within. But the gateman did not move. At last Wang Lung said with anxiety,
"Shall I go alone?"
The gateman affected a start of horror. "The Old Lord would kill you!"
Then seeing that Wang Lung was too innocent he said, "A little silver is a good key."
Wang Lung saw at last that the man wanted money of him.
"I am a poor man," he said pleadingly.
"Let me see what you have in your girdle," said the gateman.
And he grinned when Wang Lung in his simplicity actually put his basket upon the stones and lifting his robe took out the small bag from his girdle and shook into his left hand what money was left after his purchases. There was one silver piece and fourteen copper pence.
"I will take the silver," said the gateman coolly, and before Wang Lung could protest the man had the silver in his sleeve and was striding through the gate, bawling loudly,
"The bridegroom, the bridegroom!"
Wang Lung, in spite of anger at what had just happened and horror at this loud announcing of his coming, could do nothing but follow, and this he did, picking up his basket and looking neither to the right nor left.
Afterwards, although it was the first time he had ever been in a great family's house, he could remember nothing. With his face burning and his head bowed, he walked through court after court, hearing that voice roaring ahead of him, hearing tinkles of laughter on every side. Then suddenly when it seemed to him he had gone through a hundred courts, the gateman fell silent and pushed him into a small waiting room. There he stood alone while the gateman went into some inner place, returning in a moment to say,
"The Old Mistress says you are to appear before her."
Wang Lung started forward, but the gateman stopped him, crying in disgust,
"You cannot appear before a great lady with a basket on your arm---a basket of pork and beancurd! How will you bow?"
"True---true---" said Wang Lung in agitation. But he did not dare to put the basket down because he was afraid something might be stolen from it. It did not occur to him that all the world might not desire such delicacies as two pounds of pork and six ounces of beef and a small pond fish. The gateman saw his fear and cried out in great contempt,
"In a house like this we feed these meats to the dogs!" and seizing the basket he thrust it behind