e you must have discovered that
Peking dust and Peking gossip are pretty much the same thing, whirling
and blowing along together, sifting over you and into you, physically
and mentally, till you are saturated through and through.) Miss Z----
told us this; she knows every bit of rumor in Peking, from topside down:

"What _do_ you suppose happened, just two hours after the final vote was
taken, and the note despatched to the German minister announcing
China's decision? X---- [one of the Allied ministers] was seen ramping
up and down before the German legation, shaking his fist at the German
flag flying up above and shouting, 'That thing must come down! That
thing must come down!' Had two Japanese soldiers with him, they
say--where he got them heaven knows--but there he was, fairly raging,
and stomping--that's the word, stomping--up and down and shaking his
fist at the flag, and shouting that it must come down!"

"Why didn't he wait till the Chinese took it down?"

"Lord only knows, my dear! Wasn't it amusing! Could such things happen
anywhere except in Peking?"

It appears, however, that while X---- was pacing up and down before the
German legation, shaking his fist at the flag and furiously impatient at
Chinese slowness, the wily Chinese were engaged upon other, more
important matters. Hauling down the flag could wait; it was less urgent.
The astute Chinese, with admirable foresight, hastily "acquired" the
German concessions in Tientsin and Hankow for themselves--acted with
remarkable intelligence and great haste, almost undue haste, before any
of the foreign powers could "acquire" or "protect" these concessions for
themselves; put their own Chinese soldiers in possession, and with the
utmost promptness occupied these German holdings in the name of the
Republic of China. Imagine the shock! Furthermore, with the same speed,
they also seized the interned German war-ships.

Well, this is a tremendous decision for China to have reached, and the
next step, declaration of war, will be still more momentous. Opposition
is growing all the while, in spite of the rupture of diplomatic
relations, which does not mean that this country will declare war
immediately, automatically, as a matter of course. Those in favor, and
those who resist, are lining up for a tremendous struggle, and, as I
wrote you before, some say that civil war will result.

One thing stands out clearly,--our whole visit to the East has confirmed
it,--and th