hu dress?" I told her I only wanted to look natural. "You
have lived so many years abroad we consider you are a foreigner to us."
I told her that as long as Her Majesty considered I was one of her own,
I would be satisfied and that she need not worry herself about me. I
knew they were jealous of us, so I went in search of the Young Empress
and left this girl alone. We were talking with the Young Empress in the
waiting room, and this girl came in and sat near me, smiling to herself
most of the time. One of the servant girls was fixing some fresh flowers
for Her Majesty. She looked at her and asked her why she was smiling.
The Young Empress saw, and asked her the same question. She would not
answer, but kept on smiling all the time. At this moment a eunuch came
and said that Her Majesty wanted me. I afterwards tried to find out what
she had told the Young Empress but could not. Several days passed very
quietly. Her Majesty was happy, and so was I. One day the Young Empress
reminded us that we should make all preparations in order to be able
to dress ourselves properly on the eighteenth, as the time was getting
short--only two days left. That night, after Her Majesty had retired, I
went to my own room and fixed my headdress on and went to see the Young
Empress. She said that I looked very nice, and that she was sure Her
Majesty would like me better in Manchu costume. I told her that I used
to wear Manchu dress when I was a little girl, before we went to Europe,
and of course I knew how to put it on. I also told her that I could not
understand why these girls looked upon me as a foreigner. She said that
they only showed their ignorance, and that they were jealous of me and I
should not pay any attention to them at all.

CHAPTER ELEVEN--OUR COSTUMES

THE next day we got up earlier than usual and dressed ourselves in our
new gowns. I could not believe my own eyes, and asked several times
whether that was myself or not. I found that I looked all right,
although I hadn't been wearing this sort of costume for so long.
They seemed to think that we would look awkward. Our own eunuchs were
delighted to see us dressed that way. The Young Empress came in while
passing our rooms on her way to the Empress Dowager's Palace, and waited
for us to go with her. When we arrived at the waiting room a lot of
people came in and looked at us, and talked so much about us, that it
made me feel rather shy. Everyone told us that we looked much b