thing dreadful would happen to them. We soon made ourselves very
comfortable, and while we lived there, none of the dreadful things
happened to us that all of our good friends told us would be visited
upon us if we dared to take this place. However, in view of our having
lost our place by fire, I am inclined to think that their fears were
well founded.

The loss sustained by having this house burned we never recovered, as my
father, being an official of the Government, it would have been very
bad form to have tried to recover this money, besides a possible loss
of standing, as Government officials are supposed never to consider
themselves or families in the service of their country, and any private
losses in the service must be borne without complaint.

On the first of March, 1903, Prince Ching and his son, Prince Tsai Chen,
came to see us and told us that Her Majesty wished to see my mother, my
sister, and myself at once; that we should be at the Summer Palace (Wan
Shou Shan) at six o'clock the following morning. My mother told Prince
Ching that we had been wearing foreign clothes all these years, while
abroad, and had no suitable Manchu clothes to wear. He replied that he
had told Her Majesty all about us and also mentioned that he had seen us
in European attire and she had said that it would not be necessary for
us to wear Manchu costume to go to the Palace, that she would be glad
to have us wear foreign clothes, as it would give her an opportunity to
study the foreign way of dressing. Both my sister and myself had a
very difficult time deciding what we should wear for this occasion;
she wished to wear her pale blue velvet gown, as she thought that color
suited her the best. My mother had always made us dress exactly alike,
ever since we were little girls. I said that I preferred to wear my red
velvet gown, as I had the idea it might please Her Majesty. After a long
discussion I had my way. We had lovely red hats trimmed with plumes and
the same color shoes, and stockings to match. My mother wore a lovely
gown of sea green chiffon cloth embroidered with pale mauve iris and
trimmed with mauve velvet; she wore her large black velvet hat with long
white plumes.

As we lived in the central part of the city and the only means of travel
was by sedan chair and the distance from our house to the Palace was
about thirty-six Chinese li (a three-hour ride), we had to start at
three o'clock in the morning, in order to be there