She could buy both, but she hadn't even seen what was inside the shop. If she bought everything that took her fancy on a two-week trip through China, she'd go home a pauper. When Stephanie arrived, she'd ask her what she thought. Maybe she'd buy the lamp for Stephanie. If, for once, Stephanie would let her buy her something. From the shadows inside the dim shop, Mr Su Guang watched the American lady, amazed at her beauty. Mr Su, an artist and curator of antiques, had studied in America and had loved a fair-haired girl who took him to her bed and taught him to appreciate Western as well as Oriental beauty. But never had Mr Su seen a lady as vividly beautiful as this one. Her deep auburn hair shone bronze and gold in the late afternoon sun and was held in a loose knot at the back of her neck by white enamel combs etched in gold. In the delicate oval of her face, her eyes were a dark midnight blue, wide-spaced, and her mouth was generous, with the faintest downward curve at the comers giving it a vulnerable look.
