Adele and her amah were playing Clarence and David in a knockabout tournament that had the two notoriously lazy children darting for the ball. Gong, who was rolling the lawn with the heavy roller, paused to scowl in the direction of the tennis courts. His hopes of finding a young wife to wait on him in his old age had been dashed. Madam Ling, playing mah-jongg on the veranda with three of her oldest friends, all wealthy Chinese matrons, also looked towards the courts and smiled indulgently. Her reservations about throwing David into Mei Li’s company had proven unfounded. He always treated the native girl courteously but seemed more interested in her education than the romantic entanglement she’d been worried about. He’d taken on an ambitious project in trying to teach her to speak English, but he had involved both children in tutoring her and Mei Li was beginning to speak hesitantly. The beneficial effect on Madam Ling’s own children’s grasp of English was particularly pleasing, as Clarence had just learnt that he had gained a place at Oxford, like his brother before him.
