l
provided for, and was now making money on his own account. He bought
very good clothes with his money, and went in the bar of one of the
big hotels, beautifully dressed, and took a drink at the bar and
looked round to see who would drink with him. He could never catch a
responsive eye, so was forced to drink alone. He hated drinking,
anyway. In many ways he was like his father. The petty clerks who
were at the office failed to see him at the race course. He hated the
races, anyway. In many respects he was like his father. But he was far
more lonely than his father had ever been. Thus he went about very
lonely, too proud to associate with the straight Chinese, his mother's
people, and humbled and snubbed by the people of his father's race.

He was twenty years old when the Great War upset Europe. Shanghai was
a mass of excitement. The newspapers were ablaze. Men were needed for
the army. One of the clerks in the office resigned his post and went
home to enlist. In the first rush of enthusiasm, many other young
Englishmen in many other offices resigned their positions and
enlisted, although not a large number of them did so. For it was
inconceivable that the war could last more than a few weeks--when the
first P. and O. boat reached London, it would doubtless all be over.
During the excitement of those early days, some of the office force so
far forgot themselves as to speak to him on the subject. They asked
his opinion, what he thought of it. They did not ask the shroff, the
Chinese accountant, what he thought of it. But they asked him. His
heart warmed! They were speaking to him at last as an equal, as one
who could understand, who knew things English, by reason of his
English blood.

So the Autumn came, and still the papers continued full of appeals for
men. No more of the office force enlisted, and their manner towards
him, of cold indifference, was resumed again after the one outburst of
friendliness occasioned by the first excitement. Still the papers
contained their appeals for men. But the men in the other offices
round town did not seem to enlist either. He marvelled a little.
Doubtless, however, England was so great and so invincible that she
did not need them. But why then these appeals? Soon he learned that
these young men could not be spared from their offices in the Far
East. They were indispensable to the trade of the mighty Empire.
Still, he remained puzzled. One day, in a fit of boldness, he ventured