used by others at the
table!

"After an instant's hesitation she turned to a eunuch and said:

"'We cannot give her one bowl [the Chinese custom being always to give
things in pairs]; go and prepare her two.'

"Then, turning to her guests, she continued apologetically:

"'I should be glad to give bowls to each of you, but the Foreign Office
has requested me not to give presents at this audience.' It had been
her custom to give each of her guests some small gift with her own
hands and afterwards to send presents by her eunuchs to their homes.

"On another occasion the lady referred to above took an ornament from a
cabinet and was carrying it away when the person in charge of these
things requested that it be restored, saying that she was responsible
for everything in the room and would be punished if anything were
missing.

"The above incidents do not stand alone. It was not uncommon for some
of the Continental guests, in the presence of the court ladies, to make
uncomplimentary remarks about the food, which was Chinese, and often
not very palatable to the foreigner. These remarks, of course, were not
supposed to be understood, though the Empress Dowager always had her
own interpreter at table. One often felt that some of these ladies, in
their efforts to see all and get all, forgot what was due their own
country as well as their imperial hostess.

"One can understand the enormity of such an offense in a court the
etiquette of which is so exacting that none of her own subjects ever
dared appear in her presence until they had been properly instructed in
court etiquette in the 'Board of Rites,' a course of instruction which
may extend over a period of from a week to six months. These breaches
of politeness on the part of these foreign ladies may have been
overlooked by Her Majesty and the princesses, but, if so, it was on the
old belief that all outside of China were barbarians.

"All the ladies who attended these audiences, however, were not of this
character. There were those who realized the importance of those
occasions in the opening up of China, and were scrupulous in their
efforts to conform to the most exacting customs of the court. And who
can doubt that the warm friendship which the Empress Dowager conceived
for Mrs. Conger, the wife of our American minister, who did more than
any other person ever did, or ever can do, towards the opening up of
the Chinese court to the people of the West, was because of