Consignments of goods arrived at strange hours of the night at
the establishment in Limehouse, and from this side of her
father's transactions she was barred. The big double doors
opening on the little courtyard would be opened by Ah Fu, and
packing cases of varying sizes be taken in. Sometimes the sounds
of these activities would reach her in her room in a distant part
of the house; but only in the morning would she recognize their
significance, when in the warehouse she would discover that some
new and choice pieces had arrived.
She wondered with what object her father accumulated wealth, and
hoped, against the promptings of her common sense, that he
designed to return East, there to seek a retirement amidst the
familiar and the beautiful things of the Orient which belonged to
Lala's dream of heaven.
Stories about her father often reached her ears. She knew that
he had held high rank in China before she had been born; but that
he had sacrificed his rights in some way had always been her
theory. She had been too young to understand the stories which
her mother had told her sometimes; but that there were traits in
the character of Huang Chow which it was not good for his
daughter to know she appreciated and accepted as a secret sorrow.
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