Sons of Fortune

“Now I feel sure that has a significant meaning in your country.”

“Yes, it does. It means I wish to walk with you, but not in a crowd.”

Nat placed his right foot on her left. “And what does that mean?”

“That you agree to my request,” she hesitated. “But I should not have done it first,

otherwise I would be considered a loose woman.” Nat immediately removed his foot and then replaced it. “Honor restored,” she said.

“Then after we have been on our uncrowded walk, what happens next?”

“You must wait for an invitation to take tea with my family.”

“How long will that take?”

“Normally a year would be considered appropriate.”

“Couldn’t we speed up the process a little?” suggested Nat. “How about next week?”

“All right, then you will be invited to tea on Sunday afternoon, because Sunday is the traditional day for a man to have a first meal with a woman under the watchful eye of family.”

“But we’ve already had several meals together.”

“I know, so you must come to tea before my mother finds out, otherwise I will be abandoned and disinherited.”

“Then I shall not accept your invitation to tea,” said Nat.

“Why not?”

“I’ll just stand outside your house and grab you when your mother throws you out, and then I won’t have to wait for another two years.” Nat placed both his feet on hers, and she withdrew them immediately. “What did I do wrong?”

“Two feet means something completely different.”

“What?” asked Nat.

“I can’t tell you, but as you were clever enough to find out the correct translation of Su Ling, I feel sure you will discover the meaning of two feet, and never do it again, unless…”

On Friday afternoon, Tom drove Nat and Su Ling up to his aunt’s home in the leafy suburbs of Boston. Miss Russell had obviously spoken to Su Ling’s mother, because she’d put her in the bedroom on the main landing, next to hers, while Nat and Tom were relegated to the east wing.

After breakfast the following morning, Su Ling left to keep her appointment with the professor of statistics at Harvard, while Nat and Tom spent some time walking slowly around the cross-country course, something Nat always did whenever he would be running over unfamiliar territory. He checked out all the well-worn paths, and whenever he came to a stream, a gate or a sudden undulation, he practiced crossing it several times.

On the way back across the meadow, Tom asked him what he would do if Su Ling agreed to a transfer to Harvard.

“I’ll move at the same time and enroll at the business school.”

“You feel that strongly about her?”

“Yes, and I can’t risk letting anyone else place both feet on hers.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain another time,” said Nat as he came to a halt by a stream. “Where do you imagine they cross it?”

“No idea,” said Tom, “but it looks too wide to jump.”

“Agreed, so I expect they aim for the large flat pebbles in the middle.”

“What do you do if you’re not sure?” asked Tom.