it true that the foreigners don't respect their
parents at all-that they could beat their parents and drive them out of
the house?" I told her that it was not so, and that someone had given
her wrong ideas about foreigners. Then she said: "I know that perhaps
sometimes one among the commonest class do that, and that people are apt
to take it wrong, and conclude that all foreigners treat their parents
that way. Now I see just the same thing done by the common people in
China." I wondered who had told her such nonsense and made her believe
it.

After we had taken our dinner it was just half-past five, and Her
Majesty said she would take a walk along the long veranda, so we
followed her. She showed me her flowers, and said that she had planted
them herself. Whenever Her Majesty went anywhere there was always a lot
of attendants following her, exactly the same as when she went to the
morning audiences. When we reached the end of this long veranda, which
took us a quarter of an hour to walk, Her Majesty ordered her stool to
be brought into one of the summer houses. These summer houses were built
of nothing but bamboo, all the furniture being made of different shaped
bamboo. Her Majesty sat down, and one of the eunuchs brought tea and
honeysuckle flowers. She ordered the eunuchs to give us tea also. Her
Majesty said: "This is my simple way of enjoying life. I love to see the
country scenery. There are a great many pretty places which I will
show you and I am sure that after you have seen them you will not like
foreign countries any more. There is no scenery in the world which can
beat the Chinese. Some returned Ministers from abroad said to me that
the trees and mountains in foreign countries looked ugly and savage. Is
that true?" I concluded right away that someone had wished to please
her by saying things about foreigners, so I told her that I had been in
almost every country, and had found lovely scenery, but of course it was
different from China. While we were talking Her Majesty said that she
felt chilly and asked: "Are you cold? You see you have your own eunuchs,
they are all standing around, and have nothing to do. Next time tell
them to carry your wraps along with you. I think that foreign clothes
must be quite uncomfortable either too warm or too cold. I don't see how
you can eat, having your waist squeezed that way." Her Majesty got up
and we all went on walking slowly towards her own Palace. She sat down
on her fa