“I’m sorry, sir.”
“Nonsense, man,” murmured Ellery, pushing gently past the fellow, “that sort of ukase is evoked only against unwanted guests. I’m here in an official capacity, you see, so you can’t keep me out. Dear, dear; life must be complicated for the great serving class.” He stopped short on the threshold of the salon. “Don’t tell me, Hubbell, that you spoke the truth!” The salon was empty.
Hubbell blinked. “Whom did you want to see, Mr. Queen?”
“I’m not particular, Hubbell. Miss Temple will do. I scarcely think I could conduct a reasonably amiable conversation with Dr. Kirk at the moment, you know. I’m fearfully sensitive about being kicked out of places. Miss Temple, old fellow. She’s in, I trust?”
“I’ll see, sir.” And Hubbell said: “Your coat and stick, sir?”
“Official, I said,” drawled Ellery, wandering about. “That means you keep your coat on. And your hat, if you’re a second-grade detective. Excellent Matisse, that. If it is Matisse . . . Hubbell, for heaven’s sake, stop gawping and fetch Miss Temple!”
The tiny woman came in very quickly. She was dressed in something cool and gentle.
“Good morning, Mr. Queen. Why so formal? You haven’t brought your handcuffs, I trust? Take your coat off, do. Sit down.” They shook hands gravely. Ellery sat down, but he did not take his coat off. Jo Temple continued in a swift breathlessness: “May I apologize, Mr. Queen, for that horrid scene last night? Dr. Kirk is?”
“Dr. Kirk is an old man,” said Ellery with a wry smile, “and I’m a damned fool for being angry with his senilities. May I compliment you, Miss Temple, upon your choice of gown? It reminds me of a hydrangea or something, if that’s what they have in China.”
She laughed. “You mean the lotus blossom, I presume? Thank you, sir; that’s the prettiest compliment I’ve had since I came West. Occidentals haven’t much imagination when it comes to flattering women.”
“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Ellery, “since I’m a misogynist anyway,” and they grinned together. Then they both fell silent, and nothing could be heard except the stiff stalk of Hubbell across the foyer.
Jo folded her small hands in her lap and eyed Ellery steadily. “And what’s on your mind, Mr. Queen?”
“China.”
He said it so suddenly that she gave a slight start; and then she sank back with her lips compressed. “China, Mr. Queen? And why is China on that clever mind of yours?”
“Because it annoys me, Miss Temple. Annoys me dreadfully. I never thought a mere five-letter word could annoy rne so much. I had nightmares about it all last night.”
She continued to regard him with unwavering eyes as she reached out to an end-table and fetched a cigaret box and opened it and offered him a cig-aret. Neither said anything while the smoke curled cosily.
“So you couldn’t sleep last night?” she said at last. “Odd, Mr. Queen. Neither could I. That poor little man kept haunting my pillow. He smiled at me for four solid hours out of the darkness.” She shivered lightly. “Well, Mr. Queen?”
“From all I’ve heard,” drawled Ellery, “to return to the original subject, China is a sadly backward country.”
She sat up at that, frowning. “Come, come, Mr. Queen, let’s stop this idiotic fencing. Just what do you mean by that?”
“I mean,” said Ellery softly, “that I am thirsty for knowledge, Miss Temple, and that in this case you’re obviously the fountainhead. Tell me something about China.”
“China’s being very rapidly modernized, if that’s what you mean. It’s gone a long way since the Boxer affair. Matter of economic necessity, in a way. With the Japanese forcing their way in?”
“But I didn’t mean that, you know.” Ellery sat up and crushed out his cigaret. “I meant ‘backward’ literally.”
“Oh,” she said, and fell silent. Then she sighed. “I suppose I might have known. It was more or less inevitable. Yes, what you imply is perfectly true. ITiere are some really amazing?shall I call them coincidences??to be drawn from the literal backwardness of China. I can’t blame you for putting me on the rack, with this incomprehensible business of a backwards crime absorbing your attention.”
“Good girl,” murmured Ellery. “Then we understand each other. You realize, Miss Temple, that I don’t know where I’m going. This is all probably sheerest drivel. It may mean nothing at all that makes sense. And then again?” He shrugged. “Social, religious, economic customs are purely a matter of perspective. From our Western point of view anything that, let’s say, the Chinese do that is different from what we do?or opposite?may be construed, Occidentally, as being ‘backwards.’ Is that true?”
“I suppose so.”
“For example, although I’m the veriest tyro in Oriental lore, I’ve heard somewhere that the Chinese?curious custom I?on meeting friends shake hands not with the friends but with themselves. Is that true?”
“Quite. It’s an ancient custom and a good deal more sensible than ours. For, you see, the root-idea behind it is that when you shake hands with yourself you’re sparing your friend possible suffering.”
“How?” grinned Ellery. “Or should I say?come again?”
“You don’t transmit disease so easily that way, you see.”
“Oh.”
“Not that the old Chinese knew anything about germs, but having observed?” She sighed, and stopped, and sighed again. “See here, Mr. Queen, this is very interesting and all that, and I’m not averse to augmenting your fund of general information, but it’s so silly, this search after phantom backwardnesses. Really, isn’t it?”
“Do you know,” murmured Ellery, “women are peculiar. There’s an original observation! But it seemed to me that only yesterday you were taking this backwards stuff quite seriously. And today you’re calling it silly. Elucidate.”
“Perhaps,” she said cautiously, “I’ve reconsidered.”
“Perhaps,” said Ellery, “not. Well, well! We seem to have reached the well-known impasse. Indulge my silliness, Miss Temple, and tell me more. Tell me everything you know, everything you can conjure up at the moment, about Chinese customs or institutions which may be construed as ‘backwards,’ in the sense that they are diametrically opposed to customs or institutions here.”
She stared at him for a long moment, seemed about to ask a question, changed her mind, closed her eyes, and put the cigaret to her tiny mouth. When she spoke it was in a soft murmur. “It’s so hard to know where to begin. They differ at so many points, Mr. Queen. For instance, very often in building thatched huts you’ll find that the Chinese peasantry?especially in the South?will set the roof on the framework and build down, instead of building up as you?as we do.”
“Go on, please.”
“I suppose, too, you’ve heard that the Chinese pay their doctors as long as they are well, and stop payment when they fall ill.”
“An ingenious arrangement/’ drawled Ellery. “Yes, I’ve heard of that. And?”
“When they want to be cooled, they drink hot liquids.”
“Marvelous! I begin to fancy your Chinese more and more. I’ve found, myself, that raising the internal temperature makes the external temperature much more bearable. Go on; you’re doing splendidly.”
“You’re ragging me!” she cried suddenly. Then she shrugged and said: “I beg your pardon. Of course, you’ve heard of the Chinese custom of eating as loudly as possible during a meal at a strange house and belching with enthusiasm at the expiration of the meal?”
“To assure one’s host, I take it, that one has appreciated the food?”
“That’s it exactly. Then there’s . . . Let me see.” She put her finger on her perfect lower lip and mused. “Oh, yes! A Chinese will use a hot towel to cool himself?the same
