Victoria Holt - The House of a Thousand Lanterns

The teapot was blue with a gold dragon engraved on it, the cups were of the same design. Silently Ling Fu disappeared. Mr. Sylvester Milner poured out the tea.

“China tea, Miss Lindsay. So much in this house has a Chinese flavor as I am sure with your desire for knowledge you have already discovered.”

He handed me a cup of tea and from a barrel with the same blue and gold dragon design a finger of a biscuit which tasted of honey and nuts. I did not believe it was Mrs. Couch’s making.

“I trust the tea is to your liking.”

I said it was, although it was very different from the thick brew which was served in Mrs. Couch’s kitchen.

“I have been going back and forth to China since I was fifteen years old, Miss Lindsay, a little younger than you are now. That is thirty years ago. A lifetime… when one is seventeen, eh.”

“It seems a very long time.”

“One can learn a great deal in thirty years. I am a merchant. My father was a merchant before me. I in due course inherited his business. I have never married so I have no son to follow me. Every man hopes for a son. Every king wants an heir. The King is dead. Long live the King, eh Miss Lindsay.”

“That is certainly so.”

“I know that you will have deduced by now that I am forty-five years of age.” There was a slight twinkle in his eyes. “A young lady as eager for knowledge as yourself would immediately have seen that. Pray do not feel uncomfortable. I have no patience with the incurious. What can they learn about life and what can anyone know without learning? I am going to confide in you because you are interested in everything around you. You could not resist looking into the forbidden room. Well, Miss Lindsay, you are Eve. You have eaten of the tree of knowledge and now must take the consequences.”

For a moment I thought he was going to tell me we were dismissed, and this was after all a kind of slow torture. I had read somewhere that the Chinese practiced this and as he had talked so much about China, this could be his way of telling me.

His next words dispersed that fear. “You and I, I believe, could be very useful to each other.”

“How, Mr. Milner?” I asked.

“I am coming to that. I am a merchant whose business is to buy and sell. During my visits to China and my travels throughout the world and in this country I discover rare and valuable objects. I sell them all over the world. I have many collectors who are waiting to see what I have discovered. You have peeped into my little museum. Some of these pieces are worth a great deal of money. Some I sell at a large profit, others for a small profit, and some I cannot bear to part with. My collection necessarily changes. Sometimes it is more valuable than at others, but it is always worth a great deal of money. But at all times it represents business. What pleasure there is in handling these beautiful objects it may well be that you will one day understand. Allow me to refill your cup.”

He did so and I ate more of the honey and nut fingers. He smiled at me with what I felt to be approval.

“I see that you are… adaptable,” he said. “That is good. Now I come to the purpose of this meeting. I need a secretary. Now when I say a secretary I do not mean someone who will merely write at my dictation. It is more than that I need. I need someone who is prepared to learn something about the goods I handle. You see, the person I am looking for would have to have very special qualities. Do you begin to understand me?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“And what do you think of this proposition?”

I could not hide my excitement. “I could learn, you mean, about these precious things, I could really be of use to you?”

He nodded. “I have been talking to your mother about your future. When I found you in my showroom you were holding the yarrow sticks. Do you know what yarrow sticks are?”

“No. But I remember the sticks.”

“They fascinated you, I expect. They tell the future to those who can understand their message. They told me that your life was in some way linked with mine.”

“These sticks told you that. But how…?”

“When you have learned more of the ways of the East you will not be skeptical. The power of yarrow sticks has been known for thousands of years. I laid out the sticks after you had gone and I was looking to see how significant your presence was going to be in this house. Was it to be of importance? The answer was Yes.”

“A sort of fortune telling,” I said.

He smiled at me. “I think you will be an apt pupil.”

“When shall I start?”

“When you have finished with your education. That will be in a year or so. In the meantime I wish you to study the books I will give you. They will teach you how to recognize great works of art.”

“I shall come home for my holidays as I’ve been doing, shall I? And learn here?”

“In this house,” he said. “You shall have a key to my showroom. You will study the objects there and learn how to recognize value. You will learn too something of how my business is conducted. Your mother has told me that there is no provision for you from your father’s family and it will be necessary for you to earn a living. As what? A governess? A companion? What else is there for a young lady of our times? This will be different. I offer you a chance to learn, a look into the fascinating world of Art. What do you say?”

“I say I want to do this, I want to do it very much indeed. Couldn’t I leave school and start now?”

He laughed. “Now that would not be possible. First you must finish your education. Then you have an apprenticeship to serve. Fortunately that apprenticeship can be served while you are still at school. In your holidays you can study the books I give you to read and you can see some of the most wonderful treasures to come out of China.”

“I knew it was a lucky day when we came here. It is going to be wonderful.”

“You cannot look too far into the future,” he said. “I must tell you that I am the head of a very successful and profitable business. You know the nature of it. I buy and sell. Because of my knowledge of Art and of the country from which it comes I know how to buy at the right prices. And those who are interested in building up valuable collections know they can trust me. My father was a great trader; he ranged the world but was more often in China. He left the business to his sons of whom I was the eldest. We should have worked amicably together but there were differences and we split up. We became to a certain extent rivals, which was inevitable. I was the more successful. It was a somewhat uneasy situation. I don’t think my brother Redmond ever got over his disappointment that I was the one to whom my father bequeathed The House of a Thousand Lanterns.”

“The House of a Thousand Lanterns!” I echoed.

He smiled. “Ah, I see the name arouses your interest. It is intriguing, is it not? It is the name of my house in Hong Kong.”

“Does it really contain a thousand lanterns?”

“There are lanterns in each room. There must have been a thousand there at some time for it to have been so named.”

“That is a great many lanterns. It must be a big house.”

“It is. It was presented to my grandfather for some great service he did to a highly placed mandarin.”

“It sounds like something out of the Arabian Nights,” I said.

“Except,” he answered, “that this is Chinese.”

I knew that my eyes were shining with excitement. I felt that he had opened a door to me and that I was looking into a strange exotic world.

I said: “I long to begin learning.”

That pleased him. “I like your impatience, and your curiosity. They are what I need. But you have to learn of course. It may well be that when you have seen how much there is to learn you will not wish to continue. You have a year before you need decide.”