Mrs Spring Fragrance

Pau Tsu came to Seattle in the springtime and makes a beautiful bride. Wan Lin Fo had decorated his apartment in the American style, but Pau Tsu brings with her some items from China that make the home seem more familiar.

Adah Raymond and her sister are frequent visitors, which confuses Pau Tsu. She does not understand why they come when she is unable to communicate with them, and she pushes back against her husband’s request that she learn English. It is not lost on Pau Tsu that Wan Lin Fo holds Adah in high regard. Adah has good intentions, but she is oblivious of the insecurity she is causing Pau Tsu in regard to her marriage.

Wan Lin Fo brings home a beautiful American-style evening dress and walking costume. At first Pau Tsu is unable to hide her negative reaction to his gift, but she quickly recovers and says that she is overcome with happiness. Wan Lin Fo tells her: “I wish you to dress like an American woman when we go out or receive […] It is the proper thing in America to do as the Americans do” (85). Pau Tsu remarks that when she wears the dress she will look like Adah. When Wan Lin Fo leaves the room, Pau Tsu breaks down in tears.

Unused to the weather in the American Northwest, Pau Tsu comes down with a bad cough. When Wan Lin Fo mentions the word “doctor” (86), Pau Tsu makes it known that she does not want a man to examine her. Adah is sympathetic and suggests they call for one of the female doctors in town, but Wan Lin Fo is insistent that they should employ one of the physicians from the Raymond household. Pau Lin reluctantly acquiesces, but Adah can tell that the experience of being examined by a male doctor is traumatic for Pau Tsu. A week after the doctor’s visit Wan Lin Fo hears Pau Tsu singing a melancholy song. When he asks her about it, she replies: “When a bird is about to die, its notes are sad” (88). Wan Lin Fo tries to convince his wife that she will not die, but he cannot help but notice how every day her face “grows finer and more transparent” (88).

A messenger delivers a letter to Wan Lin Fo at his store. The letter is from Pau Tsu, apologizing to her husband for being unworthy of him. She makes it clear that she is leaving him so that he can obtain a divorce and marry “the Beautiful One, who is so much your Pau Tsu’s superior” (88). Shocked, Wan Lin Fo exits the shop and bumps into Adah. She can tell something is wrong and correctly guesses that it concerns Pau Tsu. Wan Lin Fo admits that his wife has left him. Instead of sympathy, Adah berates him for his treatment of Pau Tsu: “Oh, you stupid! [...] You’re a Chinaman, but you’re almost as stupid as an American. Your cruelty consisted in forcing Pau Tsu to be—what nature never intended her to be—an American woman” (89). When Adah presses Wan Lin Fo on what reason Pau Tsu gave him for her desertion, he tells her it is because of the doctor, but does not mention Pau Tsu’s suspicion that Wan Lin Fo is secretly in love with Adah.

As Adah continues to reproach him, Wan Lin Fo wonders “how he could ever have wished his gentle Pau Tsu to be like this angry woman” (89). He tells Adah: “If I find her […] I will not care if she never speaks an American word” (90). After many hours of looking for Pau Tsu, Wan Lin Fo spots a young boy dangling a strand of blue beads that he had given to Pau Tsu. The boy tells him his grandmother is caring for Pau Tsu and his maid. As they get to the house, Adah suggests Wan Lin Fo go in, and she will follow after a few moments. Embarrassed, Wan Lin Fo says, “Miss Adah […] ten thousand times I beg your pardon, but perhaps you will come to see my wife some other day—not today?” (90). In that moment, Adah understands she is the real reason for Pau Tsu’s desertion of her husband.