Her safety lay in pretense--that what she saw was as a tale twice told.
A phase of mental activity that men called courage: to summon at will this energy which barred the ingress of the long cold fingers of fear, which cleared the throat of stuffiness and kept the glance level and ever forward.

She possessed it, astonishing fact! She had summoned this energy so continuously during the past four weeks that now it was abiding; she knew that it would always be with her, on guard.

And immeasurable was the calm evolved from this knowledge.
The light touch of Ah Cum's hand upon her arm broke the thread of retrospective thought; and her gray eyes began to register again the things she saw.
"Jade," said Ah Cum.
She turned away from the doorway of the silk loom to observe.

Pole coolies came joggling along with bobbing blocks of jade--white jade, splashed and veined with translucent emerald green.
"On the way to the cutters," said Ah Cum.

"But we must be getting along if we are to lunch in the tower of the water-clock." As if an order had come to her somewhere out of space, the girl glanced sideways at the other young fool.
So far she had not heard the sound of his voice.