and guest fell silent. He smoked furiously and did not throw away his cigarette until it burned almost to his fingers.
"Have a cigarette," he said, as he reached out for his second.
I took a cigarette and as we smoked we talked about teaching and books. But soon our conversation lagged again and I was about to leave when I heard footsteps and chatter; four children came rushing in. The oldest was about eight or nine, the youngest four or five, all very dirty and homely enough. However, Lien-shu's eyes lighted up with pleasure as he stood up and walked into the inner room, saying, "Big Liang, Little Liang, come here! I have got the mouth organs that you asked for yesterday."
The children followed him into the other room and soon emerged, each with a mouth organ. Almost as soon as they stepped out of the guest hall they began to quarrel. One of them was crying.
"There is a mouth organ apiece and they are all the same," he said to them, "so do not fight over them."
"Whose are they, all these children?" I asked.
"They are the landlord's. They have no mother, only a grandmother to take care of them."
"Is the landlord single?"
"Yes. His wife died three or four years ago and he has not married again. Otherwise he would not rent his spare room to a bachelor." He smiled a wry smile as he said this.
I wanted to ask him why he had remained single, but decided that we did not know each other well enough for that.
As I got better acquainted with Lien-shu I found him a good person to talk with. He had something to say on almost every subject and everything he said was marked with originality.
