Bald-headed Bride Dissatisfied with Short-sighted Husband: The Unscrupulous Doctor My friend, Chao Fuckwol, has' considerable' amount of prestige in [his adopted town and spends no small part of his time in arranging the affairs of his friends and taking part! in various social functions. Like the majority of Chinese, he has an inmate love for festive occasions, [specially those connected with family affairs and celebrations, and is never Eappler than when he is master of Jceremonies at a wedding.
'When T first" knew him he was! merely an ambitious "young teacher Jof English in the household of a well-Known Chinese family, During this time he' made many' connections among the friends and acquaintances fof his patron and when that worthy man died, he had little difieulty festablisking himself as a doctor of medicine of the old Chinese style, having by this time nut aside all pretence of being an authority on the English Language.
Suceess{ul though he had been, te was stil! ambitious and did not spare Jany effort 10 Increase his influence amongst the officials and people of importance. Among other things, he was very desirous of gaining the' favour of a certain wealthy and Influential man, who was the head of influential family in the ity. This gentleman, though successful in many ways, was much distressed by the fact that he had been unable to find suitable husband for his eldest daughter, who was now considerably advanced in years The Yedy in question, tough of a {fair education and not lacking In Jability, was far from handsome and was further disqualified for the mar-Fage market by the fact that from birth she had been bald on tke top Jot her head, My friend, was well aware of her sad condition and it became one of his ambitions to get her suitably married, whereupon ko would not only gain her favour, but also that fof her father, who could not fail be grateful. tke Indy on a certain day and at a certain hour should be walting in tone of the rooms of his house, At given signal the fulure bridegroom was to pass across the courtyard, whereupon it was arranged that lady should also eross the courts snd so give him an opportunity of ooking at her.
This arrangement, though simple fon the face of it, was in reality dim-cult for two reasons, one being that the doctor had not divulged to the bridegroom the tact that the lady was prematurely bald and the other because tke bridegroom was 90 very short-sighted that it was almost impossible for him to get a good view of his future wife as she passed him the manner arranged. The doctor, fearing that at the last moment his well Jald plans would fall, approached the Indy on the matter and was informed that her disability would be carefully hidden by a silk cloth, which would act as a cover for ker head as she crossed the courtyard.
The question of the inability of the bridegroom to get a proper glimpse of the lady on account of iis Short-sightedness "was got over by the suggestion that he should accompanied on this momentous 0 fashion by his father, who was supposed to give hig opinion as to her food looks, and the son was to ace cept, his judgment os final, quite forgotten that the old gentleman himself was also suffering from falling sight, and was by no means fan ideal person for the role he was to adopt.
The only one who showed any shrewdness was the lady herself, for not only did she disguise her Jack of hair by covering ker head as she crossed the yard, but she walked so rapidly and took such advantage of the shadows, that the worthy gentlemen in spite of their best endeavours had avery hazy idea of what she Tooked like, Besides they were so nervous and confused that even under the best of circumstances their Judi ment would have It so happened that the good doctor was called in to attend the wife of the son of a mutual friend of ours, who was seriously ill, and, in spite of his skill, the unfortunate lady died. Though this meant a certain loss of [prestige to him, he was compensater the thought "that the bereaved husband might be persuaded in the course of time to marry again, and the doctor's opinion, the lady who iwas unfortunately bald would make him a suitable partner in life, Scareely was the poor woman her con, when the doctor began [his propaganda in favour of the bald Indy, and his persuasive tongue quickly coverted the father of the Bereaved husband to the opinion that she would make a good wife for his von; also that the marriage should take place as soon as possibi Though the lady herself was by no Jmeans young and far from prepossessing, she came from a family that was considerably more influential than that of the man she was 10 marry. The proposed bridegroom was snd had lived 9 somewhat value. There were recriminations between the old gent man and his son, but as the fault lay with them, they' felt it unadvisable to delay the marriage, and In duc course it was solemnized, When the truth came out and th bridegroom realized that from 1 point of view of beauty the lady was by no means a desirable person, ho displayed dissatisfaction and tried to throw the blame on the doctor for concealing the truth from him. The doctor retaliated by saying that had been given an opportunity to sez the lady before the marriage, and was not satisfied with her, he should have made his objections at that time, The real surprise, however, came from the Indy herself, who realized that her best defence was to attack, and loudly protested against the disabilities of ker new home which she declared was far inferior In every way to the one she had Toft, She also expressed dissatisfaction" with her husband and did not hesitate Use terms far from complimentary "when describing kim to her friends tion was most. distressingly shortsighted. Viewed from the point of 'a neutral, the qualifications, or rather isqual the two. parties ations, of were about equal and there was nothing serious to be said against the union In due time the doctor approached the son through the medium of the father, and, although a number of felends were already pressing the Jelaims of other ladies of their acfausintance, the doctor defeated his vals and in due course both parties agreed (o the marriage. Before the final step, however, the bridegroom expressed a wish that he might see ithe lady even though it must surreptitiously. After many consulta~ tions between the parties an arrange-Jment of a kind that appeals to the Eastern mind was made, It was considered particularly suitable, because while it satisfied the desire of the [bridegroom and gave kim a glimpse of the lady he was to marry, it also protected the name and reputation of the lady in question, as the meeting was supposed to be accidents land the lady was not even to kno fwhleh of the persons she saw was the one destined to be her husband, The one who suffers most, how-lever, is the doctor, whom she blames for all her troubles, and seldom a day pastes that ske does not call upon him and give vent to ler supposed grievances. Ho has become terrible afraid of her and tries to avoid her fas much as possible, but she will net be denied and displays, ability in running him to earth, He dare not offend her too deeply, because he 'Ul wishes to retain, the good favour fof her friends and relatives, On' thing Ig certain, however, that if fever arranges another wedding, he will take great care to assure himself that the bride is not a bald headed Jady.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.