Read Online World of Suzie Wong : A Novel (9781101572399) by Richard Mason - Free Book Online Page A

younger men; though in her case it was from expedience, since she appeared to succeed with them most. Doubtless she was more skilled than the younger girls with the inexperienced and shy, and more cozy; and in addition, of course, she appealed to the pocket, for as you grew older, mystery or no mystery, your prices had to drop. She would tell the other girls that she never took less than ten dollars. But they all exaggerated themselves, out of pride, about their minimum prices; and they knew perfectly well that old Lily Lou, at a pinch, would go upstairs for five.
    And then Doris . . . Doris Woo was a little over forty, with a remarkably smooth complexion for her age and not bad-looking, but with the misfortune to wear glasses. She favored the rimless kind, presumably in the belief that these were more easily overlooked.
    She was also hard—hard in the calculating, commercial way that was characteristic of some Chinese women. She was much harder than old Lily Lou, although she had only been at the game for a few years since she had come as a refugee from Pekin. She had no friends in the bar and always chose a table by herself—sitting very erectly, and turning her head with abrupt little movements as she surveyed the room for likely business, looking like a schoolmistress watching for notes being passed under desks. She had little success, and would sometimes sit for twelve hours in the bar, from noon till midnight, and go home without having made a cent—and poorer by the cost of her meals. She probably found, on the average, four or five clients a week. These were usually sailors who were too polite, too weak-willed, or too drunk to turn her down, or who, on a busy night, found themselves left with no alternative; though occasionally some sailor with a fetish about schoolmistresses or glasses would take her for choice.
    Doris was even more unpopular among the other girls than the heroin addict Big Alice. I thought their hostility toward her was ungenerous, and told them so, saying I was sure that a little kindness toward her would work wonders; but I received only cynical looks, and even the kindly Gwenny seemed unpersuaded. Then one morning, returning from town, I found myself beside Doris on top of the tram; and grasping this opportunity to prove what kindness could achieve, I invited her to have lunch with me. I suggested a little restaurant close to the tram stop in Hennessy Road where we had alighted; I had been there already and knew we could eat well for a few dollars. She accepted the invitation in principle but thought the restaurant looked sordid; and proposing an alternative, she coaxed me into taking a taxi to reach it. At the restaurant she disappeared on the pretext of making a telephone call, though in fact, I had no doubt, to arrange commission for herself on the meal; and when she returned I found that without consulting me she had already given the order. The dishes began to arrive. They continued to arrive in fairly rapid succession for an hour. Finally I was presented with the bill. It was forty-eight dollars.
    Blackmail, I decided as I paid up, could hardly go further. But it could, and did. For we were no sooner outside the restaurant than Doris, using that coaxing tone that was meant to be attractively feminine but that was in fact as hard as nails, urged me to “lend” her five dollars: she wanted a taxi back to the Nam Kok.
    I decided that the time had come for a stand.
    â€œI’ve never used a taxi before this morning,” I said. “I can’t afford it. Why not take a tram?”
    She flushed, and sudden anger glittered in her eyes behind the rimless glasses.
    â€œI’m a business girl,” she said nastily. “You’re supposed to pay for my time. I’ve wasted nearly two hours with you.”
    I suddenly could not bear to enter into argument. I felt in my pocket. I had nothing left but a few coins and a ten-dollar note. “There,”