flower merchant. I specialize in chrysanthemums. Like the others, I am returning to Canton to the home of the mistress whom I adore."
"I am Chu Chen," said the fourth, "a rice merchant, and strange though it may seem, I too am on a love mission to Canton. My girl is of a beauty that no painter could portray."
"I am Voong Wo," said the fifth and last of the merchants. "It is fitting that I should pause at this house, for I deal in tea, tea of a hundred different flavors and countless different blends. But no tea has a flavor sweeter than the lips of her whom I worship. I am even now en route to her house in Canton."
Now Lum Lee had returned with the new tea. He placed a cup before each of the merchants.
"In truth," mused Chu Kai, "it seems that we are in a manner brothers even though we have only met this hour. For each of us is being drawn to Canton by the vibrations of love. And now we have paused to sip tea together. And by drinking this tea we become even closer. It is an invisible tie binding us together."
Then in silence they sipped their tea, while the perfume of wisteria and roses floated in from the garden and the wind sighed softly through the treetops. And the aroma from each cup swirled upward until it formed a golden spiral, a staircase down which a beloved woman walked.
And each of the merchants beheld the tea-vision, the fragrant dream of loveliness. And each merchant recognized the woman as the girl whom he loved above all other women. And now slowly she began to dance. She cast aside her thin draperies until she danced nude on the table before them, a glorious golden girl, with glowing slender body. Fragrance of wisteria, fragrance of tea, fragrance of the body of that golden girl. On and on she danced until the tea grew cool and the aroma lessened. Then the vision faded, melted into the air, dissolved into the perfumed atmosphere of the teahouse. Nor did any of the merchants at the table explain to the others what he had seen.
For a few moments in a lifetime these men were brothers, held together by the alchemy of tea.
Now they separated. They had little to say, for each was lost in dreams and purple fancies.
And each took the road to Canton which he preferred, the road that would take him most quickly to the house of his lady.
Two days later, the five merchants met again. This time they met before the gateway to the garden of Mai-da who was the favored one of Ling Voong, so naturally he was annoyed. Still he was a Chinaman and had learned to hide his true feelings behind a mask-like expression. But now there was no cordiality among the merchants. They lacked the tea of Lum Lee to make them brothers, to hold them together in a common bond. They gazed at each other askance, as one might peer at thieves. There was hatred in their eyes, whereas only a few days before there had been naught but dreams and brotherly love.
They hesitated awhile, each hoping that the others would depart. But as no such thing happened, at last reluctantly they passed through the Gate of Welcome like warriors returning from a lost battle. There was no lightness in their step. There was no friendliness. They were no longer brothers. They walked around the spirit screen, then into the spacious gardens of Mai-da, gardens in which were many Moon Bridges over a
