In the corner of the room was a phonograph. He went over to that, and turned on a record. It was _E lucevan le stelle_, sung by Caruso. The voice poured out so familiar and European that Megan was startled. Mr. Shultz stood listening a moment, then he came back and sat down, resting his elbows on the table. The General appeared also to listen. "Is that good music?" he asked. "No," said Megan. "That's the stuff," said Mr. Shultz, his eyes dreamy with satisfaction. "That's the greatest voice the world has ever known." "Is it a love-song?" Mah-li asked Megan in a low voice, but Mr. Shultz heard and answered for her. "That's what it is, Mah-li. Red-hot too. You ought to know." Megan got up and went over to the phonograph, which was near a window. The window was open and a light rain was falling on the flags of the court outside. The dwarfed yellow plum, which some one about the yamen seemed to have placed in every room, bloomed in its dark glazed bowl, on a table piled high with records. Megan, leaning over to smell it, saw herself in her yellow robe dimly reflected in the glaze. The plum had a powdery pollen smell that made her think of the dust on the wings of moths and butterflies. The perfect voice continued to flood the room with tones that, despite the banality of the air, held nobility and glamour. Megan watched the General as he appeared to listen intently, wondering how it was striking him. Surely this simple insistence on desire and death must be apparent even to him, even in its unfamiliar medium. Was he thinking of Mah-li she wondered? What would a Chinese love-song be like? The music of the wedding procession she had heard in the afternoon came suddenly back to her, not as remembered sound, but as a depression of spirit. The General was frowning. "I don't know your good music from your bad," he said. "A music house in Shanghai sends me catalogues and I order every seventh name on the list." Megan came back slowly and sat down by Mah-li. The game had stopped. Mah-li sat with her hands clasped on the table and Megan saw the jade rings she wore. "How pretty," she said, touching one lightly with her finger. Mah-li spread her hands out fanwise, and the General leaned over and looked down also at Mah-li's hands. "Do you know jade?" he asked, and bent closer to examine the rings. "I know no more of it than you do of music. It does interest me however. I believe it is a very esoteric taste, isn't it?" "Do you like it?" He seemed to her unduly persistent. "Look at them closely," he said. Mah-li stripped off the rings and Megan, a little embarrassed, examined them. The jade was set in diamonds on gold bands. She did not like the settings. The color of the jade was deep and translucent but it aroused no special emotion in her; she was not fond of jewels. "Valuable as diamonds, gem jade like that," said Mr. Shultz with satisfaction, "and these people would rather have it."