hope that she will not ask for
anything, for I hate to refuse her. Can you guess what it is?" I told
Her Majesty that there could not be anything special; besides, Mrs.
Conger considered herself to be a person who knew Chinese etiquette
very well, and I didn't believe she would ask for anything at all. Her
Majesty said: "The only objection I have is that Mrs. Conger always
brings one of the missionaries as her interpreter, when I have your
mother, your sister and yourself, which I think should be sufficient. I
don't think it is right for her to do that; besides, I cannot understand
their Chinese very well. I like to see the ladies of the Diplomatic
body sometimes, but not the missionaries. I will stop that when the
opportunity comes."

The next morning Prince Ching told Her Majesty that the American
Admiral, and Mrs. Evans, and suite wished to be presented to her. The
American Minister asked two private audiences. He said he had made
a mistake by telling her that Mrs. Conger had asked an audience for
herself, the day before.

After the regular morning audience was over Her Majesty laughed and
said: "Didn't I tell you yesterday that there must be a reason for
asking an audience? I rather would like to meet the American Admiral
and his wife." Turning to us she said: "Be sure and fix everything up
pretty, change everything in my bedroom, so as not to show them our
daily life." We all said "Jur" (yes), but we knew it was going to be a
hard task to turn the Palace upside down.

It was just the night before the appointed audience. We started to work
taking off the pink silk curtains from every window, and changing them
for sky blue (the color she hated); then we changed the cushions on the
chairs to the same color. While we were watching the eunuchs doing the
work, several of them came into the room, carrying a large tray full of
clocks. By this time her Majesty had come into the room, and ordered us
to remove all her white and green jade Buddhas and take some of the jade
ornaments away, for those things were sacred, and no foreigners should
see them, so we replaced them with these clocks, instead. We also took
away the three embroidered door curtains, and changed them for ordinary
blue satin ones. I must explain that these three curtains were sacred,
too. They were embroidered to represent five hundred Buddhist deities,
on old gold satin, and had been used by Emperor Tou Kwang. Her Majesty
believed that by hanging these c